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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29160702">Caterpillar</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpywolf_ao3/pseuds/grumpywolf_ao3'>grumpywolf_ao3</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DCU, DCU (Comics), Justice League &amp; Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Justice League - All Media Types, Naruto, Wonder Woman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adorable couple, Adventure, BAMF Diana (Wonder Woman), BAMF Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Bounty Hunters, Bromance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Immortality, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama &amp; Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Older Characters, Older Uzumaki Naruto, Protective Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, Romance, Slow Burn, Spaceships, Violence, War</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:33:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>89,092</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29160702</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpywolf_ao3/pseuds/grumpywolf_ao3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>For decades, he had travelled from one corner of the known Universe to the other, searching for a way back to his home planet. But after nearly 100 years of fruitless efforts, even with his legendary stubbornness, Naruto grew weary. Now, he had to let it go.</p><p>(There are over 40 chapters on fanfiction.net, with new chapters coming up on a weekly basis. The story is being uploaded on this website at a much slower pace; I'm only using ao3 as a backup.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Diana (Wonder Woman)/Uzumaki Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Preserver</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>At the start of this story, Naruto is over 100 years old. He has had plenty of time to change both as a person and as a shinobi. Don't expect Naruto to act like his canon self after living for so long. As for his power level, after over 90 years of training, he is very powerful. Regarding the power level of the DC characters, it is mostly the one from DCAU and the animated movies.</p><p>Note1: this is not a hero Naruto story. Chaotic neutral alignment for the most part (check wiki for more info).</p><p>Note2: I would also like to mention that English is not my first language and that I work solo too, with no beta. Therefore, if you find any typos or grammar mistakes feel free to point them out. I am open to constructive criticism as well.</p><p>Note3: Rated M for violence, adult themes and lemons.</p><p>Pairing: Naruto/Wonder Woman. No harem/man-whoring around. It is OTP.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Hey! Monkey want a nanna?" a very tall and buff grey-skinned humanoid creature said mockingly while imitating a monkey. It was Lobo, one of the most infamous bounty hunters in the Galaxy.</p><p>"When I get out, I'm shoving that arrogant smirk right down your throat!" a human man said angrily from behind a glass wall. He was imprisoned in a room with glass for walls. It was none other than Superman. However, unlike his name suggested, currently, he was severely weakened due to the radiation of an artificial red sun shining in his cell.</p><p>"Ohh yeaaah! You know, I believe that Lois gal might be getting a tad lonely now that you're doing time in a cosmic petting zoo. Maybe I'll go back and <em>cheer </em>her up." Lobo said and rubbed his chin while laughing. "But of course, I do have to collect the bounty on this geek first," he said as he pointed at the rat-like creature he had on a leash. "Emperor Spooj got a bad temper on him."</p><p>Then, turning towards the levitating yellow creature behind him, he made a salute with his hand at his forehead and said:</p><p>"Adios, wrinkles. You want any more dorks snagged, you got my number."</p><p>The one in question, the Preserver, replied:</p><p>"Actually, there is one other being I need for my collection. The last Czarnian."</p><p>Lobo laughed out loud.</p><p>"Haha. That's rich! I'm the last Czarnian!" Then, as if it was a big secret, he told Superman: "I fragged the rest of the planet for my high school science project. I gave myself an A."</p><p>The Preserver said no more. With a wave of his hand, a glass cage fell from the ceiling on top of Lobo. Before he had the time to react, extremely potent sleeping gas poured from the floor. Lobo tried to resist and punched the glass walls but it was futile. He fell unconscious in a matter of seconds.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Thanks for returning my uniform. Now how about my ship?" Superman said after he finished changing from Kryptonians' traditional attire into his Superman costume.</p><p>"Impossible." the Preserver said. "For ages, I've preserved many rare creatures, even some from your adopted planet, Earth."</p><p>"I'm not an animal to keep me stuck in a cage!" Superman said revolted.</p><p>"Normally, I don't take sentient beings. But you and Lobo are all that survived from your respective homeworlds. Same for this nine-tailed fox over here, named Kyuubi." the Preserver said and pointed towards the glass cage next to that of Superman.</p><p>In it, a small crimson-red fox cub was chewing on a chunk of meat several times larger than it while its 9 fluffy tails wagged lazily at its back.</p><p>"These two have adjusted well to their new surroundings. I suggest you do the same."</p><p>After the Preserver floated away, Superman furrowed his brows as he witnessed Lobo getting gassed by the two robot girls attending to his needs when he tried to escape.</p><p>A chuckle came from the cage where the small fox cub was imprisoned.</p><p>"First time getting locked up?"</p><p>Unexpectedly, it was the very deep voice of a male. Even more unexpected it was that it was speaking in English.</p><p>Superman looked at the talking fox dumbly, surprised not only at it speaking in English but also marvelling at how the huge chunk of raw meat was disappearing at a mind-boggling speed into the tiny being's jaws.</p><p>After he was done eating, Kyuubi arched its back and stretched its small limbs. A cute yip escaped from his mouth as he yawned. Then, he jumped on the comfortable-looking circular bed and started to push against the mattress with his tiny paws not unlike a cat before he finally found the perfect place. After eating a chunk of meat 10 times larger than his entire body weight, nothing was better than a sweet afternoon nap.</p><p>"Are you seriously content with staying locked up like this?!" Superman asked when he looked at the fox cub who seemed like he could not care less about their predicament.</p><p>Kyuubi opened his eyes lazily and said:</p><p>"And what would you have me do? The meat he brings is always laced with tranquillizing drugs. It saps all my strength."</p><p>Superman had an incredulous look on his face.</p><p>"Why would you keep on eating it if you knew it was drugged?!"</p><p>The fox cub let out another cute yawn before he said:</p><p>"How can I turn down free food? Relax. Everything is going according to the plan."</p><p>"What do-"</p><p>Superman did not finish his question because, at that moment, a powerful tremor shook the entire space ship. The Preserver's ship was gigantic - one had to measure its size using miles. For such an enormous ship to shake that badly, it spoke volumes about how powerful the attack that had impacted it must have been.</p><p>Deafening alarms started to blare and numerous robots swarmed the corridors of the ship.</p><p>Kyuubi's large ears flicked as they captured a particular sound.</p><p><em>"Fuuton: </em> <em>Vacuum Wave!"</em></p><p>Not only that the giant metal doors of the room were cut in half but the whip-like wind technique continued to fly and sliced all the robots on the corridor clean, from the middle.</p><p>"Hmpf! Show off!" Kyuubi said snarkily. "Why do you even keep on saying the names of your jutsu, it's not like you need to anymore. And what took you so long?! I've been locked up for 2 days already!"</p><p>The newcomer's face was hidden behind an ANBU-style white fox mask, with red lines drawn on it but Kyuubi did not need to see his face to know that he was grinning widely from one ear to another.</p><p>"They see me rollin' they hatin'."</p><p>Hearing Kyuubi starting to growl at him, the newcomer added:</p><p>"Come on! What's cooler than bursting in to save the day, saying the badass name of a cool technique and kicking everyone's ass? Hahaha, you're just jealous."</p><p>Superman looked at the man and the fox arguing with each other in an alien language. He did not understand a word from what they were saying but apparently, the man was very talented in pissing off the little fox. However, as amusing as it was to watch the nine-tailed fox cub kicking up a fuss, there were other pressing matters at hand. He decided to interrupt them.</p><p>"Hey, friend! Would you mind helping me get out of this cage?"</p><p>Naruto fiddled with the translating device installed at his belt for a moment before replying to Superman in a perfect English.</p><p>"Oh wow. What is a human doing all the way here?"</p><p>"Lobo attacked me and lured me in the range of this ship and the Preserver captured us both. But I'm not a human, I'm a Kryptonian."</p><p>Though Superman could not see his expression due to the mask he was wearing, he got the feeling that he was very surprised.</p><p>"But that's not important right now." Superman said quickly "Please help me get out before the Preserver comes with reinforcements."</p><p>Naruto nodded and clenched his fist, about to punch the glass, when Kyuubi's annoyed voice came from behind.</p><p>"Hey, you asshole, free me up first!"</p><p>Naruto snorted.</p><p>"Come out yourself you lazy pig."</p><p>A "tsk" came from the fox cub who then proceeded to increase in size until he was no smaller than a horse. His previously fluffy and cute 9 tails were now much larger and apparently incredibly powerful given that the reinforced glass that had been caging him until then was smashed effortlessly with a mere swipe of one of his tails. But Kyuubi did not linger in that large size for a second longer than necessary and immediately turned back to his original appearance - that of a tiny fox cub.</p><p>A moment later, the glass imprisoning Superman was shattered with a punch from Naruto and Superman stepped out quickly, letting out a sigh of relief.</p><p>"Thank you!"</p><p>"It was nothing," Naruto said dismissively before turning his back at Superman and going back to Kyuubi. He scooped the small fox in his arms and then put him on his shoulder.</p><p>The fox then curled up into a ball of fluff and closed his eyes. It fell asleep. Strangely enough, no matter what kind of movements Naruto made, the little fox seemed like it was glued to his shoulder, not budging one bit even if Naruto were to bend down completely.</p><p>Naruto smiled under his mask and gently patted the small fox on his shoulder.</p><p>"Sleep tight, Kurama. I'll take care of these annoyances," he said and his hands began to form a series of hand-seals when another group of robots appeared at the end of the corridor. This time around, a vortex of razor-sharp wind shot from his mouth and shredded to bits everything in its way.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Don't forget your promise, Lobo. You said that you'll leave me and everyone else on Earth alone."</p><p>"The Main Man's word is his bond, man," Lobo said.</p><p>Unlike his normally flippant and goofy attitude, the Czarnian appeared to be very serious. It seemed as though he truly lived by what he said - that he never went back on his words.</p><p>Naruto whistled impressed.</p><p>'<em>He's a psychopath that murdered his entire race but he does have his good points too, eh?' </em>he muttered to himself.</p><p>Not going back on one's word was something that Naruto could respect since he was exactly the same.</p><p>Lobo came to him and extended his hand for a handshake.</p><p>"I owe you one. I'll pay back this favour anytime you will need it."</p><p>And with that, he jumped on his space-bike and left the dry dock of the space ship.</p><p>"See you around, big guy," Naruto said and waved towards Superman as he turned around. "You better not stick around. This ship will self destruct any moment now."</p><p>Speaking of the devil, just as he finished his words, a loud but clear robotic voice was heard through the entire ship of the Preserver:</p><p>
  <em> <strong>"Initializing self-destructing sequence. Remaining time until the explosion of the ion engines and reactor: 5 minutes."</strong> </em>
</p><p>As he was leaving, Naruto felt a heavy hand pat him on the shoulder. Superman's angry voice came from behind:</p><p>"Why did you do that?!"</p><p>Naruto tilted his head in confusion.</p><p>"Do what?"</p><p>Superman was even more irritated at his reaction.</p><p>"All these creatures are now going to die! I could've saved them! I could've taken them to Earth!"</p><p>Naruto shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>"I didn't know you were such a bleeding heart. They're just beasts, animals. Though it's unfortunate that they will die, it can't be helped. Would it have been better to leave this ship as it was and let in end in the wrong hands? Imagine if some space pirates took control over this ship after we left. They'd have enough firepower to even raid an entire planet."</p><p>Superman became silent. When he thought about things from that perspective he understood Naruto's point: it was much better for some animals to die than for such a large and technologically advanced ship to end up in the hands of a villain.</p><p>"You should get going. There are only 3 minutes left." Naruto said when he heard the robotic voice's countdown.</p><p>Then, turning around, he sprinted towards his own space ship. His shadow clones had already started the engines of the ship and opened the blast doors of the dry dock so all he had to do was to just jump in and close the ship's door behind him. While he was pulling the door of his space ship after him, Superman flew in with an urgent look on his face.</p><p>"My ship was destroyed in the fight against the Preserver. I need your help to get out of here."</p><p>Naruto did not waste any time and let him in. A moment later, the ion thrusters propelled the spaceship to several miles away. Even then, it was still too close to the Preserver's ship.</p><p>"Is that...a boom tube?!" Superman said in surprise.</p><p>Something similar to a very small wormhole was opened in the space and Naruto's Shadow Clones drove the ship right into it.</p><p>"Not exactly. It's nowhere near as precise as a boom tube but I don't have a Mother Box. That stuff is very rare and hard to come by. This is more like a wormhole. But it's the latest warp technology from Almerac so it's pretty good. It gets the job done."</p><p>⁂</p><p>Naruto was lying in his chair bonelessly, with an expression of defeat on his face.</p><p>"There's nothing about our home here either."</p><p>Kyuubi, who was awake now, headbutted Naruto gently with his snout and wrapped his 9 tails around his neck as to comfort him. The shadow of a smile appeared on his face but it was not visible due to the fox mask covering it. Still, he brought his hand up to pet Kyuubi as a show of gratitude. They may love to argue with each other but, for the past +90 years, they've always been together, protecting each other's back. They were inseparable, best friends for life. A long sigh came out of his chest.</p><p>"What are you looking for?" Superman asked curiously when he came into the control room of the ship and saw the sombre mood.</p><p>It was Kyuubi that replied to him:</p><p>"Our homeworld. That's why I even let myself get captured by that creep - for us to have a legitimate reason to raid his ship and access his database."</p><p>It was not the first time the Preserver had tried to capture Kyuubi. Over the past 90 years, he had tried to do that several times but to no success. However, this time around, Naruto and Kyuubi made a plan for Kyuubi to let himself get captured so Naruto would raid his ship for information.</p><p>"The Preserver is rather infamous in the Galaxy for his hobby - collecting all kinds of rare and endangered species to preserve, even going as far as to kill for it. So it makes sense that he has a great deal of information about the Universe's geography as a whole. There was a chance that maybe he knew something about our home world since he was so adamant about capturing me all these years."</p><p>Naruto scratched at his spiky blond hair.</p><p>"This is hopeless," he said with a defeated voice. "I've travelled through all the 3600 sectors of the known Universe in search for my homeworld. I've visited all the Stellar and Planetary Systems with humanoid creatures in them and all the planets inhabited by human-like beings. I've even gone to the Green Lantern Corps' headquarters, Oa, to ask for information. But nobody has ever heard anything about the Elemental Nations. This guy, the Preserver, was my last hope."</p><p>Even with his legendary stubbornness, after almost 100 years of fruitlessly scouring the Universe for a way back home, Naruto was at the end of his wits. Finally, he realized the futility of it all. He did not even have the energy to get angry anymore.</p><p>"I'm just...tired."</p><p>A poignant silence followed.</p><p>"I'm sorry to hear that. I know how it feels to be the last of your kind." Superman said quietly. "But you can't give up on living. Though some things were lost, you can gain others in the future. My parents and my homeworld perished, but I found a new family and new friends on Earth. Now, I have one purpose: to protect my adopted home. To protect it so the Earth won't die like Krypton."</p><p>Naruto's appreciation for Superman went up a notch when he heard his words. He became silent in contemplation.</p><p>"You are more than welcome to join us. You wouldn't be the first nor the last alien to have found a home on Earth." Superman offered.</p><p>The blond couldn't suppress a snort.</p><p>"Your purpose and feelings are admirable but of all the places in this galaxy, why would I choose Earth? Haha!"</p><p>"Hey, what do you mean, what's so bad about my planet?!"</p><p>Naruto's fingers danced on the keyboard of the supercomputer of the control room and, after a few moments, a datasheet appeared on the large screen.</p><p>"As I said, during the plus 90 years that I've travelled the Universe, I visited all the planets with human-like beings. I've visited the Earth too, about 60 years ago. What's wrong with your planet? I don't know about the current situation but when I went there, there was a freaking world war."</p><p>"Your technology was one of the most backwater I've ever seen at a sentient species in the entire Universe and it went the same for the general population's mentality too. Dictatorships focused on suppressing the population, genocides, racism, and like half of the population was struggling to find something to eat from one week to another. And that's just data that I collected in a matter of days. Why would anyone willingly come to such a place?"</p><p>Superman dressed his voice awkwardly.</p><p>"There were, indeed, many issues in the past. Some of them still exist, I will not lie, but we have come a long way since then. Your information is quite outdated. Our technology exploded over the past few decades to the point where we are able to travel in space. Racism has been abolished in most parts of the world and there are very few dictatorships left. We have a saying on Earth - don't diss it till you try it. Maybe it won't be as bad as you think it is."</p><p>Naruto shrugged his shoulders, not very interested.</p><p>"Well, I'll have to take you to Earth anyway so we'll see then."</p><p>Naruto started typing again on the keyboard and an extremely large and detailed interstellar map appeared on the large screen. It was a map of the Milky Way Galaxy. After typing 'the Earth' in a search bar, the map was zoomed in greatly, to the point where the map of the Solar System became clear. Then, he took the coordinates of the Solar System and proceeded to start activating a new wormhole. Unlike Boom Tubes that were so precise that they could open anywhere regardless, the warp system of Almerac's spaceships could only narrow it down to Planetary Systems.</p><p>"Out of curiosity, can you open a wormhole to Rao System? Krypton's homeworld?"</p><p>Naruto turned his eyes from the control panel and looked at Superman's face searchingly. He made a humming noise as he thought.</p><p>"Hm, I do have enough fuel to go to Krypton and then to Earth... but I won't have enough to leave the Earth after that."</p><p>"You can refuel on Earth, on our Watchtower." Superman said. "As I told you, we are capable of space travel nowadays. Me flying all the way here from Earth is proof of that."</p><p>There was no reason for Naruto to actually listen to Superman's wishes - after all, he had already helped him more than enough by freeing him from the Preserver's cage and also giving him a ride back home - but, for some reason, he felt a peculiar feeling of kinship with him.</p><p>
  <em>'Nagato really knew what he was talking about.'</em>
</p><p>The older Naruto got, the more he agreed with Uzumaki Nagato's beliefs: that people truly empathised and understood each other only after they felt the same pain. It was the same in this case. Although he had nothing to gain from it, Naruto decided to do Superman this favour because he felt that they were the same - the last of their kind.</p><p>Turning his attention back to the control panel of the ship, the interstellar map zoomed out and then he wrote 'Krypton' in the search bar. Then, the map of the Rao System appeared on the screen. After typing in a few more commands, the space started to crack and a wormhole appeared a short distance in front of the ship. Destination: Rao System, Krypton.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Argo</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Through the thick windows of the spaceship's cockpit, an enormous red star could be seen. It was Rao, a red supergiant. Supergiants were the largest type of stars that could be found in the Universe. The one saving grace for the planets orbiting it was that red stars were not as hot as yellow stars, let alone blue stars. Nevertheless, the intelligent lifeforms in the Rao System had still perished in the end.</p>
<p>As the Almeracian spaceship flew towards the area that Krypton used to orbit, they saw a very large number of asteroids glowing with a dark green light littering the space. Chunks of matter starting from sizes of several hundred feet to even tens of miles were all that remained of planet Krypton and its moons.</p>
<p>"When civilisations as powerful as Krypton are wiped out in a single day...it makes you realize how fragile and insignificant our lives are. That no matter what great accomplishments one has in life, in front of Nature we are nothing but specs of dust." Naruto said.</p>
<p>His facial expression could not be seen because of the mask he was wearing but his voice was subdued, melancholic.</p>
<p>"Have you been here before? I mean on Krypton." Superman who had been silent until then asked.</p>
<p>"Yes, roughly 4 decades ago, to get my reward for completing a bounty. It wasn't long before it blew up now that I think of it. It came out as a shock for many beings in the entire Galaxy when Krypton was destroyed."</p>
<p>Hearing him speak about his homeworld, Superman was listening with rapt attention.</p>
<p>"You may or may not know this but even today, dozens of years from Krypton's destruction, their technology and their relics still fetch a very high price on the legal and black markets alike. It goes to show how advanced they had been for their tech to have not become outdated even after all these years."</p>
<p>"Can't stop wondering though... how could a civilisation as technologically advanced as them die out in such a dumb way? You'd think they should have easily managed to detect that something was wrong with the planet's core and at least escape if not outright solve it. This whole situation smells fishy to me. And not just me; anyone with a working brain would think something else happened behind the scenes."</p>
<p>Superman clenched his fists at his words.</p>
<p>"You are right. Someone did orchestrate everything. My father was one of the leading scientists on Krypton and he had warned everyone that the planet was going to explode but nobody in the government wanted to believe him and the results of his research. Instead, they chose to listen to the corrupted AI that they had created - Brainiac. But, by the time they finally realized that Brainiac had been lying to them all along, it was too late. As far as I know, besides the criminals trapped in the Phantom Zone, I'm the last Kryptonian. My father sent me on a rocket, as a baby, to Earth, minutes before the collapse. A short video is all I have left of my parents' memory."</p>
<p>Due to his upbringing, Superman was a very kind and pure-hearted man. One that would not willingly hurt even a fly. However, if there was someone he wanted to destroy with every fibre of his being, that was Brainiac. The God of Evil, Darkseid was a close second too. Nevertheless, that was easier said than done.</p>
<p>"Naruto, I'm hungry." Kyuubi all of a sudden said.</p>
<p>And just like that, the solemn mood from before was completely broken. Naruto's voice sounded helpless when he spoke next:</p>
<p>"Seriously, Kurama, you ate 3 hours ago. Have some patience. You can see that there is nothing edible around..." but then his words trailed off and he turned his head towards Superman. <em>Coincidentally, </em>Kyuubi also turned his head and licked his whiskers as he looked at Superman with a hungry look in his eyes.</p>
<p>A chill travelled down Superman's spine and he unconsciously stepped back, inwardly starting to become alarmed. Only 3 hours had passed since he left the Preserver's ship and he had been nowhere close to a Yellow Sun to recover his strength. Because of that, he was still severely weakened compared to his usual self.</p>
<p>As Superman was bracing himself for what could be a battle for his life, the fox started snickering like a hyena.</p>
<p>"I'm just kidding! Hahaha!"</p>
<p>After he stopped laughing, Kyuubi asked as though it just came to his mind:</p>
<p>"By the way, can you Kryptonians regrow your limbs if you were to lose an arm or a leg?"</p>
<p>The real meaning was not lost to Superman. But, before he could reply, Naruto grabbed Kyuubi by the scruff of his neck and brought him down from his right shoulder in his lap.</p>
<p>"Stop teasing the poor boy." he said with a chuckle and, in the palm of his other hand, a glowing sphere of light-blue energy took shape. "Come, tell me what flavour do you want this time."</p>
<p>At the sight of the Rasengan in Naruto's hand, Kyuubi's 9 fluffy tails started wagging excitedly.</p>
<p>"Make it spicy!" the fox said and gulped impatiently. He looked like a glutton.</p>
<p>In the next moment, the light-blue Rasengan turned red, transforming into a ball of fire. With no further ado, Kyuubi started to bite and lick at the sphere of fire chakra with gusto, as though it was a delicious ice-cream.</p>
<p>"Look at him, isn't he adorable?" Naruto cooed.</p>
<p>A growl came from Kyuubi for being called 'adorable' but his ire did not last long because he quickly lost himself in the sauce.</p>
<p>"He does look endearing when he's not threatening to eat my limbs whole." Superman said and the two men chuckled together.</p>
<p>While they were laughing, an alarm rang and a notification appeared on the large screen of the computer in the control room of the ship. Below a red S.O.S. signal, a small map of the Rao System appeared with a pulsating red dot at the very edge of it.</p>
<p>"Is there anyone alive?" Superman asked, his voice betraying his hopes and expectation.</p>
<p>Naruto extinguished the orb of chakra in his hand but Kyuubi growled in unhappiness and bit on his fingers.</p>
<p>"Ow, you little shit, biting the hand that feeds you?"</p>
<p>Still, it was not the time to start a fight with the fox and instead turned his attention towards the screen. He changed the destination of the ship to the coordinates shown on the map.</p>
<p>"Don't get your hopes too high. For all we know, there is no landmass at the edge of the system, so far away from the star. Most likely it's a stranded ship requesting assistance." Naruto said.</p>
<p>But, to Superman's delight, the blond's words were proven to be wrong a few minutes later when a rather small planet appeared in their view. It was grey, seemingly devoid of life, and enormous cracks littered the surface, cracks in the crust that were so large that they could be seen all the way from space. It was a dead planet.</p>
<p>"Could anyone still be alive on a planet like this? After such a disaster?" Naruto wondered.</p>
<p>"We have to try! Even if the chance is minuscule, there's still a chance that there are survivors! There's no way I'm leaving without saving them!" Superman insisted vehemently.</p>
<p>He had always wanted to one day come to the Rao System and look for survivors. He had always hoped that maybe - just maybe - one of the colonies of Kryptonians located outside of Krypton had managed to survive somehow. But whereas at first, he had not had the technology to do that, after he got the means to travel in space he no longer had the leisure to do so. For example, less than 3 months ago, Imperium and his race had also tried to conquer the Earth and kill every living being on it, just like they had done to Mars a thousand Earth years ago. He was afraid of leaving the Earth unprotected for too long. However, whether it was luck or fate, he was now in the Rao System. He would not miss the chance to save any survivors for anything in the world.</p>
<p>When he heard his words, Naruto looked at him amused.</p>
<p>"What can you do about it if I decided to leave though? You may have special powers on Earth but, in this system, you're just an ordinary man. You don't even have a suit to survive the temperature on that frozen planet or the lack of oxygen."</p>
<p>Superman became silent. He realized his mistake. The masked person in front of him was not his subordinate to listen to his orders.</p>
<p>"Please, I need your help." he said and lowered his head.</p>
<p>To his surprise, the blond quickly agreed.</p>
<p>"Sure. I will help you. For 40 mass units of gold."</p>
<p>Superman's head shot up, his eyes wide.</p>
<p>"What?!"</p>
<p>Naruto chuckled at his reaction and the fox curled up in his lap chortled too.</p>
<p>"There is no free meal in this world, kid. You think people are going to work for you just because you said 'please'?"</p>
<p>The Man of Steel looked as though he could still not fully grasp the current situation.</p>
<p>"...You want me to pay you in gold to save innocent people's lives?"</p>
<p>Naruto nodded.</p>
<p>"Naturally."</p>
<p>"And you also better not forget that I freed you from the Preserver's cage and gave you a ride on my ship too - because that'll cost you another 30 mass units of gold. Normally, I should charge you for this detour trip to the Rao System as well but I decided to do this one thing out of the kindness of my heart. Take it as a bonus, on the house."</p>
<p>Superman made an incredulous face and Naruto almost started laughing out loud when he saw the small bulges in his cheeks, a sign of how hard he was clenching his teeth.</p>
<p>"Oi, oi. You're acting as if I'm robbing you now or something. I don't know what kind of environment you've grown up in but normal people in this Universe expect to be paid for their work. Of course, you can choose not to pay and I'll drop your sorry butt in space right now."</p>
<p>Superman could no longer hold back his anger.</p>
<p>"I thought you were different! I was even feeling sorry for you, I thought that you were like me! But you're just a money-grubber, not that different from a highway robber!"</p>
<p>Naruto stood up from the pilot's seat and the easy-going mood around him suddenly disappeared.</p>
<p>"I could've ignored and left you to rot in that glass cage and be on my way. I had no reason to take you on my ship and give you a ride to Earth because I have no business there. But I do try to help people in need if it's not too bothersome. Still, this is this and that is that."</p>
<p>"I'm a mercenary, not a priest. I don't do charity. You think your words of gratitude will fill my stomach or buy new parts and cover the maintenance costs for my ship? Or maybe your gratitude will compensate me for potentially risking my life in an unknown place? Wake up to reality, boy."</p>
<p>An uncomfortable silence for Superman was instilled after Naruto said those words.</p>
<p>"Now let's cut the crap. Are you going to pay, or not?"</p>
<p>Superman sighed in defeat. He understood that he could not force his lofty ideals on other living beings that were not even from Earth, much less on a mercenary. Furthermore, the man in front of him held all the cards at that moment. He and his beast were stronger than his current self and it was their ship too. Not to mention that, as Naruto said, in his current condition, Superman had no way of surviving on the surface of that dead planet alone. He did not have a suit to protect himself from Rao's red radiation, or from the extremely cold temperature or from the lack of oxygen. If he wanted to save whoever had sent that distress signal, he depended on Naruto. Lastly. he also owed Naruto a debt of gratitude.</p>
<p>"I don't recall you asking Lobo for anything." the Kryptonian still grumbled unhappily.</p>
<p>"That's because Lobo had a modicum of common sense to acknowledge by himself the debt he owed me. And yes, just one promise of his is more than enough guarantee. He's been a bounty hunter for decades and never once went back on his word or broke a contract. He may be a piece of shit but he does have his own standards too."</p>
<p>"Fine, fine, you win!" the Kryptonian said in exasperation and then muttered to himself: "What do you even need gold for is beyond me..."</p>
<p>Naruto sat back on the pilot's seat and steered the ship to enter the cracked planet's atmosphere.</p>
<p>"For transactions at an intergalactic level, what currency do you think that people use? With millions of planets and even more currencies, do you think money is of any use? Say you give me money from Earth, where am I going to use them?"</p>
<p>At his words, Superman momentarily forgot how annoyed he was and became genuinely curious. He had never really asked himself that question before because he had never left the Earth until then for other reasons besides fighting against his enemies.</p>
<p>"Payments are made mostly with goods. Usually, it's stuff like advanced weaponry, spaceships, reactors or magical artefacts. But, depending on the planetary system and the position in the galaxy, gold, precious minerals, and other rare materials can be used as currency too. Hell, you can even pay with rare or powerful creatures or even slaves. Anything that the other party is interested in. Of course, money is used for transactions as well but only between planets belonging to the same intergalactic empire. Outside of those, money is worthless."</p>
<p>Naruto explained all that patiently, with a very light voice. It was as if their small argument from a few moments ago had never happened in the first place. He did not seem affected by it. Apparently, it had not been the first time, by far, that someone had tried to slither their way out of paying him what they owed.</p>
<p>"So I'm asking you for gold in consideration of your origins. I can't expect someone from a backwater planet like the Earth to pay me with a planet-destroyer cannon or a motherbox now, can I?" he said with a chuckle.</p>
<p>Naruto landed the ship on an open space. It looked like a large plaza of a city. A ruined city covered in ice. The entire planet was covered in snow and ice. A sombre expression appeared on Superman's face when he looked at the scenery outside. Vaguely, he could recognize the architectural style of the buildings buried below the ice.</p>
<p>"Alright, I'm heading out." Naruto said with an energetic voice, not exactly fitting with the desolate scene in front of them. After all, they were basically in the middle of a giant graveyard. The burial ground of an entire civilisation.</p>
<p>Before he opened the outside trap door of the spaceship he said:</p>
<p>"Don't think about doing anything funny while I'm away. The moment anyone besides me tries to start the engines of the ship, this bracelet over here -" and he pointed at the white band around his wrist "- will teleport me back to the ship. It's an anti-theft system implemented on all the military ships of Almerac. Not gonna lie, it caught me off-guard too when I stole this ship and... ahem. Anyway, I'm going. Be a good boy and stay put until I come back."</p>
<p>Superman was between laughing and crying, not really knowing how was he supposed to react. Indignant for being suspected of being a thief? Annoyed or amused at being treated like a naughty little kid? Or maybe worried that this guy stole a military ship from Almerac? He still remembered his encounter with the violent Queen of Almerac.</p>
<p>"I've met many weirdos in my life but this guy...I think he takes the cake. Phew, what a character!" Superman muttered.</p>
<p>The masked blond man may not be weird on the same level of weirdness as someone like Lobo but he gave off a feeling of instability, making one feel on edge the whole time while interacting with him. Through the entire ride, Superman had been secretly anxious due to how whimsical Naruto seemed to be. Was he a bad guy? Well, not really, because he saved Superman's and Lobo's lives. Was he a good guy? Well, he had just admitted that he robbed Almerac of one of their military ships and he also demanded a crazy expensive fee for his services. That was not the behaviour of a morally-upstanding guy but the behaviour of a thief and an unscrupulous businessman. Superman couldn't get a proper read on his character.</p>
<p>
  <em>'70 mass units of gold...where the hell am I gonna get so much gold from? I'll have to ask Batman for help once again.'</em>
</p>
<p>He could already imagine Batman's patented glare boring a hole in his head or Flash making lame jokes and poking fun at him. He palmed his forehead when he felt the beginning of a headache. But then, another thing came to his mind:</p>
<p>
  <em>'Wait, how much is a mass unit?'</em>
</p>
<p>That was not how they calculated the weight on Earth. Clearly, it was an alien measuring unit. Was 1 mass unit equal to a pound? If that was the case then it was still ok. Somewhat. But what if 1 mass unit was equal to say - god forbid - one ton? At that thought, Superman's face became ugly to look at.</p>
<p>"Argh, what a scumbag!"</p>
<p>⁂</p>
<p>It did not take long for Naruto to find out where the distress signal had been sent from. With a sweep of his Sage Mode senses, all life signatures in a radius of 50 miles were revealed. All of them... better said would be that the only one. There was only one person still alive. As he walked through the ruins of the previously prosperous city, he let out a long sigh. Men, women, children, animals, vehicles, buildings, everything was buried into the eternal snow and ice.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, he did not dally and continued walking towards the location of the life signature. Soon, he reached the ruins of what had been a rather impressive building. Upon entering, he noticed that the temperature was a bit higher than outside. He followed the still relatively intact staircase and went down to the underground floors of the building. It made sense that if anyone was living in this building, they would be living underground rather than on the higher floors.</p>
<p>A few moments later, he reached a circular room that did not look too different from the control room of a spaceship. The moment he stepped in, a circle of light glowed on the floor and a rather blurry hologram appeared from the device in the middle of the room. It was the image of a tall but very beautiful blonde woman in her late thirties. She looked identical to a female human. Then, a sad but warm voice resounded in the cold room.</p>
<p>Naruto quickly fiddled with the translating device at his belt to understand what she was saying.</p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>"I am Kala In-Ze. Chief position of Argo City. Five years ago Argo was a thriving vibrant world. But then, without warning, five years ago, our sister planet, Krypton, was destroyed in a giant chain of explosions. Krypton's destruction tore Argo from its orbit."</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p>It looked like the transmission was recorded 5 years after Krypton's and Argo's destruction. As the blonde woman in the hologram spoke, one of the screens in the circular room started showing clips from when the planet was still in a pristine condition and then the following catastrophe.</p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>"The resulting devastation destroyed most of our world and sent it moving slowly, inexorably away from our sun, leaving a few desperate survivors freezing to death. There was nothing my people could do but pray our distress signals would be answered. But now, I can wait no longer. I have taken a desperate last chance to save my surviving family."</em>
  </strong>
</p>
<p><strong><em>"To my knowledge, we are all that is left of Argo. Please, help us!" </em></strong>she said, tears streaming down her face. With that, the transmission ended and the hologram disappeared.</p>
<p>Naruto sighed apathetically. It was not that he was completely stone-hearted to their plight. He was just numb. Krypton and Argo were just 2 of the dozens of planets that had been destroyed during his lifetime. Probably even at that very moment, another planet exploded somewhere in the vast universe.</p>
<p>Going by his homeworld years, Naruto was 113 years old. He had travelled through the Universe for 97 years. Even so, he showed no more signs of growing old at all after he reached the age of 25. For all he knew, he was immortal, never to die of old age.</p>
<p>Travelling from one corner of the known Universe to the other and witnessing all the death and destruction around him made him understand better than most people the frailty of life. And that, coupled with his apparent immortality, made him over the years slowly detach himself emotionally from his surroundings. Why love someone if they could get killed off just like that? Why make friends too - just so he could watch them grow old and die? Regardless, Naruto did not dwell on those depressing thoughts for long. His life was not all gloomy and dark. Because he had Kyuubi.</p>
<p>As though the fox knew his inner feelings, he moved closer on his right shoulder and snuggled into his neck. Naruto smiled behind his mask and brought his left hand to gently pat Kyuubi on the head. In this ever-changing world where planets and even entire star systems could unexpectedly perish in less than a day, there was one constant in his life, someone that would forever be at his side: Kurama. Through thick and thin, the two of them would always have each other's back.</p>
<p>Walking towards the side of the room, he arrived in front of 4 life capsules. Three of them had been invaded by ice and the people inside had become frozen corpses. But in the last capsule, a person still lived. A thin girl with shoulder-length blonde hair was sleeping peacefully. She looked no older than 16. She appeared to be the daughter of the woman in the hologram.</p>
<p>"Looks like our trip here has not been in vain." Naruto said.</p>
<p>"Mhm. And now, that big oaf won't bitch about the money he owes you either." Kyuubi grumbled making Naruto laugh.</p>
<p>A yellow-red light appeared around his hand, coating it up to the middle of his forearm. It was Yang chakra, unmatched in vitality. It was a chakra born mainly from his body's physical energy. He ripped the capsule's door open and his chakra-coated hand immediately touched the girl's head. The Yang chakra engulfed her body and an expression of comfort appeared on the unconscious girl's face. Her pale-white cheeks quickly became ruddy as her blood's circulation increased and she even started to show signs of waking up.</p>
<p>He took the young girl in his arms in a princess carry and then the yellow-red chakra covered him and Kyuubi too. In the next moment, the three of them vanished from the underground room, leaving only a flicker of yellow-red light in their wake.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Meeting the Justice League</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>An answer to what a guest reviewer asked about the timeline on ff.net: indeed, I modified the date of Kara's rescue and the date of the Preserver's capture of Superman. But, from now on, the story will roughly follow the timeline of the Justice League animated series. Nevertheless, I won't cover all the events in the series; some will be skipped and maybe others will be added from other DC animations. New adventures will surely pop up too at some point. After all, this is fan fiction. I'm letting my imagination run free.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A blonde girl in her mid-teens was lying on her back on a bed with several wires connecting her to various medical machines. A strange assortment of people was gathered around her bed, looking at her curiously. Superman in his red and blue costume, a green-skinned humanoid wearing a blue cape, another man in a bat-themed suit, a scantily-clad athletic woman, a masked woman with angel-like wings, a Green Lantern wearing his Corps' traditional uniform, and lastly, a man in a red suit and mask with a lightning motif on his chest.</p><p>"What's with those gaudy costumes? Void, it's so cringe! I'm getting goosebumps." Naruto muttered and raised the sleeve of his right arm to show the fox on his shoulder proof of his words. (1)</p><p>Kyuubi snickered when he saw Naruto's hairs standing on his forearm and his skin looking like that of a chicken.</p><p>While Naruto and Kyuubi were talking among themselves in their native language, the green-skinned man spoke:</p><p>"Her vitals are stable. The condition of her body is remarkably good. She's brimming with vitality. If you did not tell me that she had been in cryo-sleep for nearly 30 years I would not believe it. Now, we just have to wait for her to wake up naturally."</p><p>"You don't need to thank me," Naruto said complacently. "I wouldn't mind a bonus to my paycheck tho."</p><p>The other seven people in the room all looked at him, their faces displaying various emotions. Some looked at him with curiosity, others with wariness while others with a helpless look on their faces.</p><p>When the Almeracian ship appeared on the Watchtower's radar and Superman contacted the Martian Manhunter to give them access, upon getting down from the ship, nobody questioned Superman in regards to who were the visitors at his side because they could see the unconscious girl in his arms and the urgent expression on his face. But now that things settled down, they naturally became curious.</p><p>Anticipating their questions, Superman said:</p><p>"We should let the girl rest in silence. We'll discuss more in the conference room."</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Let me get this straight: you took the Javelin without telling anyone anything, went off chasing a crazy alien bounty hunter, got yourself captured and then ended up destroying the Javelin in a brawl and also with a debt of almost 4 million dollars?!" Green Lantern, a middle-aged black man shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice betraying his disbelief.</p><p>Given that Green Lanterns were the protectors of the Universe, John Stewart was naturally aware of what a unit mass represented for aliens. 1 mass unit was equal to 1 kg (2.2 pounds). Converting 70 mass units of gold into US dollars, the final result was that Superman had a debt of over 4 million dollars.</p><p>"Holy Molly...!" Flash gasped.</p><p>While Wonder Woman seemed not fully aware of just how huge that amount of money was - although she had left the Paradise Island a bit more than 2 months ago she had yet to truly interact with the society of the 'world of men' - Batman was massaging both of his temples with his hands.</p><p>In contrast, a certain Thanagarian woman could not help herself.</p><p>"Puhu!"</p><p>She tried to mask it by coughing in her hand but when she took a look at the mixture of awkwardness and shame on Superman's face, all her restraint disappeared.</p><p>"Ahahah!" she laughed out loud, beating the conference table with her palm.</p><p>"Hawkgirl! This is no laughing matter!" Green Lantern barked.</p><p>But Green Lantern's outrage only made her laugh harder.</p><p>"Dude, over 4 million?! This is plain robbery!" Flash said while looking at Naruto wide-eyed.</p><p>"Is it now? Is the life of the last Kryptonian and the last Argonian not worth that much? Allow me to expand your horizons: if I captured the two of them and sold them to the Psions I reckon I'd have enough money to even buy a terraformed moon in the Vega System. A whole moon. That's how valuable the last survivors of these two races are. I'm actually suffering a huge loss by giving them away to you basically for free."</p><p>A chill went down everyone's spine at those words. Superman himself appeared to be very perturbed. But even more unsettled by the revelation was Green Lantern.</p><p>"You would sell 2 innocent people to those monsters?!" John Stewart shouted.</p><p>"Do you know who those guys are?" Flash asked.</p><p>"They're a race of maniacs from Vega System, a planetary system outside of the 3600 sectors of the Universe protected by the Green Lantern Corps. They have a hobby of dissecting and experimenting on people, trying to create new races and creatures. One of the worst tumours the world has ever seen." Green Lantern said with a dark expression on his face.</p><p>Naruto made a pause.</p><p>"Of course that I wouldn't sell people as if they were livestock. Luckily for the big guy and that little girl, I do have some morals too, ya know? But if you try to double-cross me..."</p><p>None of the people in the conference room was deaf to the undisguised threat in his words.</p><p>"That's enough. You will have your gold in 24 hours." Batman who had been silent until then spoke.</p><p>"What about fuel for my ship?"</p><p>"You can refuel here, at the Watchtower."</p><p>⁂</p><p>"And I thought that Flash was a glutton..." Hawkgirl muttered while looking at the 9-tailed fox cub that was sitting on the table in the kitchen of the Watchtower, gorging himself with food. Half of their food supply had already disappeared into the tiny being's seemingly bottomless stomach.</p><p>"My metabolism is too fast compared to normal people so I need a lot of calories to sustain it. But I'm curious what this little fox' special power is." Flash said and raised his hand in an attempt to pet the fox.</p><p>But Flash cried out startled when one of the nine tails of Kyuubi suddenly enlarged and slapped his hand away.</p><p>"Hey, that's not fair! Why can Wonder Woman touch it and I can't?" Flash complained.</p><p>Wonder Woman was currently playing with one of Kyuubi's fluffy tails, showing a gentle expression that made a stark contrast with her normally stoic attitude as a warrior princess. Hawkgirl also tried to touch Kyuubi after Flash but her hand was slapped away too. Now, she was sulking at his side. In fact, Wonder Woman was the only one Kyuubi allowed to get close to him.</p><p>What the others did not think about and what Kyuubi did not know either was that, as someone carrying the name of the Goddess of the Hunt, Wilderness, and wild animals, Wonder Woman had been blessed with an increased degree of affinity with wild animals and nature in general. To Kyuubi, her presence did not feel threatening and he could also sense her emotions or, better said, the lack of her negative feelings. In addition, having the fur on his tails caressed so gently was a wonderful feeling too (something that Naruto never did).</p><p>"He doesn't like you. Plus, it's common sense you don't normally touch animals when they eat." Naruto said without looking up from the tablet in his hands.</p><p>"Who are you calling an animal you stupid pig?" Kyuubi suddenly growled and Flash, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman backed away from the table startled.</p><p>"It talks?!" they unknowingly cried out at the same time.</p><p>However, Kyuubi did not seem to care enough to press the issue. He was currently busy with chewing on an entire chicken, straight out of the freezer. With food in front of his face, it was like the outside world ceased to exist. Naruto was also busy tinkering with the device in his hand. He was checking on the job offers that his information brokers and business partners had sent him over the past week. He had to go through several dozens of them.</p><p>The three members of the Justice League looked at each other in dismay. The Martian Manhunter had tasked them with "babysitting" the mercenary and his 'pet' while he, Batman, Superman and Green Lantern were going to have a private conversation about how to deal with them until Batman managed to acquire the gold (~155 pounds of it).</p><p>"They're talking about us, Naruto," Kyuubi said after he finished the raw chicken and licked his whiskers.</p><p>"No surprise there." the blond replied. "What are they saying?"</p><p>"They wanna keep us here until we leave. According to that Green Lantern, it would be a disaster if they were to let us loose on Earth." Kyuubi said.</p><p>"Wait, how can you hear them? They're on several floors away." Hawkgirl asked.</p><p>Naruto grinned at Kyuubi's words and although his face could not be seen due to the mask he was wearing, his voice was filled with mirth.</p><p>"I didn't really care about visiting the Earth again but now that they want me to not go there, I will go. For the hell of it."</p><p>Kyuubi revealed a toothy grin and he left the rest of the food on the table. With a small bend of his lower limbs, the fox leapt up like a spring from the table back to his favourite place - Naruto's right shoulder. A moment later, without warning, several small marbles fell on the floor and a very intense light flashed, blinding the rest of the people in the room. A startled shout came from them at being temporarily blinded. They did not even know that Naruto and Kyuubi had already teleported away, straight back to their ship.</p><p>The blast doors of the Watchtower's dry dock were shut but Naruto was not worried about how to get out. At his age, after a lifetime of acting as an intergalactic mercenary, cautiousness had become his second nature. He was no longer like his teenager self who used to jump head-first into situations without thinking. That said, he had made a habit out of leaving markers outside of the planets or spatial stations that he was going to land on, to give himself a way out in case things went south. Better safe than sorry.</p><p>The warship that Naruto had stolen from Almerac was not large. Being designed mostly for scouting purposes, it was only 150 feet long and a bit less than 70 feet wide, having a sharp triangular shape. It had a highly advanced ion reactor, cloaking capabilities such as becoming invisible and it was focused on speed. While its camouflage, speed and mobility were excellent, the downsides of such a ship were its lack of firepower and the small capacity of its energy shield. But it fit his needs perfectly - his purpose had never been to go at war against fleets of warships, but to travel the Universe.</p><p>Arriving in the control room of his ship, Naruto firmly placed one hand on the board and his other hand made a ram seal. A fantastic scene happened: in the next moment, the entire ship disappeared! A blink of an eye later, the ship appeared several hundred miles away from the Watchtower, next to another one of Earth's numerous artificial satellites.</p><p>An invisible spaceship entered the Earth's atmosphere, heading towards the dark side of the planet where it was night. Generally, the more advanced a civilisation was, the more fantastic its night sky was too. It was a rough but not necessarily inaccurate way to gauge the progress of a backwater planet such as the Earth. And, naturally, he went towards the brightest agglomeration of man-made lights: the Northeastern Coast of the United States since, at that moment, it was night on the American continent.</p><p>⁂</p><p>One hour later, Naruto and Kyuubi were in a late-night restaurant at the outskirts of Boston. They were the sole customers. At first, the clerk tried to stop him from entering with his 'fox pet' but a low-level illusion technique later he stopped all the ruckus.</p><p>Now, Naruto was wolfing down one burger after another with an expression of content on his face. He was not as big a glutton as Kyuubi but he did love food too. It was one of the finest pleasures in life.</p><p>"Can't believe how good this is. This also looks like a cheap restaurant. Who would've thought that Earth had such good food." Naruto said.</p><p>Kyuubi made a hum of approval. Then, he lifted a bottle of Coca Cola even larger than his own body and gulped it all down in one breath. After that, a sonorous burping sound rang from his throat for almost 20 seconds. Man and fox burst into obnoxious laughter. Fortunately, they were the only customers in the restaurant at that late-night hour.</p><p>"Wish they had ramen. Come to think of it, very few planets I've been to had it. On some planets, they don't even eat food. Imagine a life where ramen doesn't exist. Why even live?"</p><p>Even after 97 years of being away from his homeworld, Naruto's obsession with his favourite food had not disappeared. Though he had eaten many other dishes that were admittedly much tastier and richer in flavour than ramen, eating ramen always hit him differently than any other food. It was because ramen also had a sentimental value to him in addition to its good taste. It reminded him of the first 2 people that had ever shown him kindness while almost everyone else in his village hated him - Ichiraku and his daughter, Ayame. It reminded him of home.</p><p>"Oy, waiter, bring me some more roasted chicken! And do it fast!" Kyuubi yelled at the clerk but then yelped when Naruto grabbed one of his large ears.</p><p>"Don't be an asshole, you could've at least say 'please'." Naruto rebuked.</p><p>Kyuubi tried to bite him but Naruto let go before he had the chance.</p><p>"You cocky little shit, one of these days, I'll have to teach you to respect your elders," Kyuubi growled.</p><p>"Pipe down, twerp. Did you forget what happened the last time we brawled?" Naruto said with a smirk, making the fox wince at the memory.</p><p>Just then, none other than Batman and Wonder Woman appeared next to their table.</p><p>"Why did you run away from the Watchtower?" Batman said.</p><p>But when they saw the food disappearing into Naruto's mouth despite wearing a mask that covered his entire face, Wonder Woman asked in curiosity:</p><p>"How are you doing that?"</p><p>"Would you believe me if I told you it's magic?" Naruto said jokingly but Batman did not seem to appreciate his sense of humour if the narrowing of his eyes was anything to go by. "Anyway, how did you find us so fast? I thought you'd take a bit longer. I mean I fried all the tracking devices you've planted on my ship."</p><p>It was Kyuubi that anwered:</p><p>"That woman planted a tiny tracking device on one of my tails. She thought I wouldn't notice."</p><p>"If you knew what she was doing why did you let her?" Batman asked suspiciously.</p><p>"Wait, you knew?" Naruto also asked.</p><p>"Well, someone had to pay the bill after out late-night dinner." the fox said with a shrewd look in his eyes.</p><p>It was not only Naruto that burst into laughter but even Wonder Woman let out a soft giggle too.</p><p>While no outward sign of anger could be seen at Batman, Kyuubi knew how annoyed he was thanks to his Negative Emotions Sensing. But Batman's ire became apparent when he had to pay a bill of several thousand dollars.</p><p>It was not having to pay a few thousand dollars that triggered him but the audacity of Naruto and Kyuubi to take advantage of the Justice League like that - first, by extorting Superman of a huge sum of money knowing that he could not refuse his services and now making him pay for their food after they left the Watchtower without their accord.</p><p>Regardless, he calmed himself down. As irritating as the two of them were, according to Superman, they were not interested in living on Earth. So Batman consoled himself with the thought that this headache-inducing duo of aliens would disappear the next day after they got their gold.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Kyuubi's gluttony will be explained in the future. It's not only for the comedic effect, there is also an important reason behind it. Thanks for reading. If you found any typos/mistakes, you can tell me.</p><p>(1) "Void" is an expression that Naruto will use in this fic instead of something like "oh god". He has a deep fear/respect for the unknown and boundless void of the Universe due to something that had happened in the past. More will be revealed as the story progresses.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Let it go</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You're not such a bad guy after all, are you?" Naruto said.</p><p>"What's that supposed to mean?" Batman narrowed his eyes at him.</p><p>Instead of replying, the blond man slurped loudly on a large number of noodles at the same time. It was Wonder Woman that answered to his question:</p><p>"Behind that mean glare of yours, there is a nice personality hidden."</p><p>When Naruto made a thumbs-up gesture at her showing that her words were spot on, Batman's glare intensified.</p><p>The four of them were currently in the Chinatown district of Boston, in a Chinese restaurant. Batman had been the one to direct Naruto to that place after he asked if Earth had a dish known as 'ramen'. Thus, thanks to Batman, he was now in the middle of <em>inhaling</em> his 12th bowl of ramen. Even Batman's poker face began to falter at the sight of the ever-increasing mountain of empty bowls stacked on the table.</p><p>In contrast, the ever-gluttonous fox was not eating. Kyuubi was lying stretched on his back in Wonder Woman's lap, letting out quiet growls of content from the belly rub she was giving him.</p><p>Finally, Naruto put down on the table the 12th empty bowl and exhaled loudly in bliss.</p><p>"Are you finally done eating?" Batman asked.</p><p>Though his facial expression could not be seen due to his face being covered by his mask (even while he had been eating), everyone could hear the reluctance in his voice when he spoke:</p><p>"I would like to eat more...but it's enough for now. I can sense there are only 2 employees working in the kitchen at this late hour. I've already troubled them enough by ordering 12 bowls of ramen at once."</p><p>Batman and Wonder Woman looked at each other strangely. This guy was despicable enough to extort Superman of 4 million dollars but now he was worried about overworking 2 cooks at a restaurant? They did not know what to think of him.</p><p>Right at that moment, an alarming news report came up on the tv installed above the counter:</p><p>
  <em>"A dangerous hostage situation is developing at the Federal Building in Metropolis. So far, the Ultra-Humanite has refused to speak with negotiators. A freak of science, the Ultra-Humanite is reportedly a genius who is also extremely dangerous [...]"</em>
</p><p>Batman and Wonder Woman jumped up to their feet. But although the situation was urgent, Wonder Woman could not help being amused when she saw that the fox cub in her lap had not fallen off when she sat up. He was still sitting perpendicularly on her lap as if he was glued to her thighs. Still, she could not afford to play around at that moment. She took the fox in her arms and handed him over to Naruto.</p><p>"Do not fry this tracker too. At least if you want to get your gold tomorrow." Batman said and handed Naruto a bat-shaped tracking device.</p><p>"By the way, if you need any help, I'm here. We can discuss the price later, based on contribution." Naruto offered while taking back a grumpy and unwilling fox from Wonder Woman's hands.</p><p>"No thank you," Batman said categorically. "We can handle this."</p><p>Then, turning towards the Amazon, he said:</p><p>"Wonder Woman, let's go."</p><p>⁂</p><p>"<em>We don't need your help</em> - he said. <em>We can handle this</em> - he said. Bwahaha!" Kyuubi laughed evilly from atop Naruto's shoulder.</p><p>Luckily, he and Naruto were conversing in their native language because otherwise, Kyuubi would have gotten into real trouble for making fun of the current situation like that. In front of them, Batman was lying on his back on a bed in the Watchtower unconscious, his body a sweaty mess. During the fight against the metahuman criminals hired by Lex Luthor, he had been bitten by Copperhead who injected him with his venom. Batman had almost died.</p><p>"The venom antidote is working." Martian Manhunter said in relief and, not long after that, Batman regained his consciousness.</p><p>"Welcome back," Superman said. "We were afraid we lost you."</p><p>"Luthor and the others... what happened?"</p><p>"They got away. All but Copperhead." Martian Manhunter answered.</p><p>"I'm heading down to Stryker's to interrogate him," Superman added.</p><p>"Alright, let's go," Batman said and tried to sit up but Superman stopped him.</p><p>"No, you're staying here. That venom almost killed you."</p><p>"So?"</p><p>"So you're staying here!"</p><p>Batman glared at him but did not continue to argue and sat back on the bed. However, after Superman left, Batman still did as he wanted. Despite the words of consolation from the Martian, he went straight to the computer and tracked down the location of the Injustice Gang through the tracking device that he had secretly planted on Lex Luthor.</p><p>"I know this must be hard for you - feeling vulnerable. You're the only one of us without special powers. But you don't need to prove yourself. You're a valued member of this team and we're only trying to-"</p><p>Batman cut off Martian Manhunter's words midway:</p><p>"I'm taking the shuttle. Unless you want to try and stop me."</p><p>The two looked at each other in the eyes for 2 very long seconds before the Martian Manhunter backed off.</p><p>⁂</p><p>On his way back to Earth, Batman also took the alien mercenary and his fox with him to hold his end of the bargain. Now, they were inside a warehouse in Gotham City.</p><p>"Here's your gold. You can check its weight yourself." Batman said and pointed at two wooden boxes on the ground.</p><p>Opening their lids, Naruto saw 35 gold bars in each box, every one of them weighing 1 kg. He nodded in acknowledgement and took out a scroll from one of the inner pockets of the fur-collared black cloak covering his body. He spread the scroll open and placed it above the two boxes. After putting his hand on top of it, a small plume of smoke burst out and the 2 boxes filled with gold vanished.</p><p>"Nifty trick," Batman said. It was almost a compliment. He naturally understood how many possibilities such a convenient ability could bring.</p><p>"Thank you for the business," Naruto said professionally and then handed Batman a card.</p><p>"A business card?" Batman asked, inwardly surprised.</p><p>"I'm an independent mercenary. Since there's no agency or corporation behind me, I have to advertise my services myself. Anyway, you have urgent matters to deal with so I won't keep you. Take care." Naruto said and raised his hand for a handshake.</p><p>The two masked men shook hands and then Naruto and Kyuubi disappeared from the warehouse with a body flicker movement. When he could not feel the two aliens' presence any longer, Batman looked at the business card the blond left behind.</p><p>"Looks like he's done other things too besides eating since yesterday until now," he muttered.</p><p>It was a black coloured card and written on it were a few lines in red - and much to his surprise, they were written in English. On the front of the business card, it was written:</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Intergalactic mercenary: Uzumaki Naruto</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Alias: Caterpillar</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Total missions taken: 3381</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Missions completed: 3380 (99.6% completion rate)</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Method of contact: lightwave xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>Object of activity:</em>
  </strong><br/>
<strong>
    <em>- escort</em>
  </strong><br/>
<strong>
    <em>- sabotage</em>
  </strong><br/>
<strong>
    <em>- espionage</em>
  </strong><br/>
<strong>
    <em>- rescue</em>
  </strong><br/>
<strong>
    <em>- assassination (scumbags only)</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>Batman involuntarily let out a snort of amusement at the explanation written in the parentheses. Looking on the back of the card, there was a picture of a crimson-red nine-tailed demonic-looking fox.</p><p><em>'Weird alias.' </em>Batman inwardly thought.</p><p>Naruto was wearing a fox-themed mask, he had a nine-tailed fox cub as a pet and even his business card had the picture of a nine-tailed fox on it. One would think his alias would be related to foxes. Batman could not see how was a name like 'Caterpillar' related to foxes in any way.</p><p>Regardless, he did not ponder too much on it. He put the card in one of the many pockets of his utility belt and then headed towards the hideout of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang.</p><p>⁂</p><p>An Almeracian ship exited Earth's atmosphere and headed towards the edge of the Sol System at a constant speed, in a straight line. There were only two people on board: a blond-haired man and a red fox.</p><p>"So, what's the plan now?" Kyuubi asked.</p><p>Naruto was sitting on a chair, browsing through the rather lengthy list of jobs that various information brokers and other organisations that he was in partnership with had sent him. He had been at it for the past 2 hours. It was completely unlike him. Normally, he was a decisive man when it came to job-related things.</p><p>Naruto made a slow-moving waving motion with his hand in front of his face and the white ANBU-style fox mask started to disperse in a shower of particles of light. The reason why he could even eat without taking his mask off was that the mask was not an actual, physical object but a jutsu that he had created, one that he could easily control at will. It was a jutsu that he created primarily not to disguise his identity (though it was good at it since not even Superman could see through it with his x-ray vision) but to solve the problem that poisonous gases and the lack of oxygen - which meant that he could now survive in hostile environments with no issues and even underwater. It was something that he had created out of necessity after going through countless dangerous places during his travels across the Universe.</p><p>When the mask dispersed, the previously blue eyes became red and his sun-kissed blond hair took on a darker tint too, becoming a strawberry-blond colour, almost red. As for his face, it had not changed too much since his teenager years. The more noticeable differences would be that the whisker-like marks on his cheeks had become darker and thicker and that, between his eyebrows, 2 rather deep frown wrinkles could be seen. He looked like a man in his mid-twenties.</p><p>When the mask disappeared, Naruto rubbed his face with his palms and sighed.</p><p>"I don't know. I don't even know what job to take or if I should take any job at all."</p><p>The reason why he had become a mercenary was that he had needed a way to finance his expeditions. Intergalactic travel was very expensive. Ships capable of interstellar travel, their maintenance costs, the fuel, the weapons to equip on them, information...all these things were not cheap at all, regardless of the galaxy. No, their prices were exorbitant, hence also the reason why his services were rather expensive too. But now that he realized that finding a way back home was impossible, he was at a loss of what to do.</p><p>"You've searched enough, Naruto. Almost a century is more than enough. Even if you went back now, what would you go back to? Everyone in your generation has long since passed away. You know as well as I do that shinobi don't live long lives."</p><p>Naruto frowned at those words; it had become a habit for him (and that was the reason why the frown lines between his eyebrows were so pronounced).</p><p>"Don't tell me you've forgotten what happened 88 years ago, Kurama. It's the reason why I don't look a day over 25. For me, it was only 1 hour...but when I came out, almost 50 years had passed in the outside world."</p><p>At those words, the hair all over Kyuubi's back and his nine tails became straight like needles as a series of chills went down his back. At that time, Kyuubi had still been sealed inside Naruto as the two of them had not managed to find a way to let Kyuubi out without killing Naruto until he was in his late 40s. However, through Naruto's eyes, he could see and experience the outside world, just like Naruto could. The sight he had seen that day would forever be ingrained in his brain. It was something that neither he nor Naruto would ever be able to forget.</p><p>Nonetheless, Kyuubi did not want to back off.</p><p>"I know what hope you've been clinging on for the past century - time dilation. You've been hoping that while a century has passed here, maybe - just maybe - no more than a day had passed in the Elemental Nations." (1)</p><p>"But forget about a day, just think about one hour. No, even 5 minutes. Who could survive against the Rabbit Goddess after she kicked us out of the dimension? You think that Uchiha could? Or that useless woman you used to have a crush on? Or maybe your sensei? Hell, at that time, even you wouldn't have been able to last all alone against Kaguya for 5 minutes."</p><p><em><strong>"Shut up!"</strong></em> Naruto shouted incensed. The amount of chakra that his mere shout contained made the entire warship shake terribly.</p><p>Kyuubi scoffed not in the least intimidated. But he still chose to give up on his tiny fox cub form and his body enlarged until he was several feet tall, making the control room barely accommodate his enormous size. His voice became even more powerful and demonic when he spoke next:</p><p>"You don't like to hear the truth, eh? Here. I'll spell it for you: everyone is dead! You've been living with your mind stuck in the past for almost a century! Fighting for something that probably doesn't even exist anymore!"</p><p>When Kyuubi said those words it was like Naruto had suddenly lost all his energy. He sat down on the pilot's chair and let his head fall against the steering wheel of the ship lifelessly.</p><p>Inwardly, Kyuubi felt his heart crack at that sight. He cared about Naruto like his own brother. They were family. Telling Naruto such harsh words hurt him too.</p><p><em>'Forgive me, Naruto, but it had to be done. You've spent a human's entire lifetime already on a wild-goose chase. It's enough. I can't watch you waste your life like that any longer. It's time to let go.' </em>Kyuubi thought in his heart.</p><p>The two of them often argued and sometimes even brawled but it was play fighting. It was very rare for them to have a serious fight. The number of times they fought ever since Kaguya had thrown them into another dimension could be counted on the fingers on one hand. And Naruto had always avoided speaking about how small were the chances of them ever going back home. He even avoided thinking about it.</p><p>"You are right, Kurama. I'm sorry." Naruto said.</p><p>In the deafening silence that followed, the sound of his tears falling on the floor could be heard. They were big, bitter tears. Tears filled with the frustration and bitterness that he had bottled up inside of him over the past century. All this time, he had pursued his goal with a tunnel vision, mindlessly. He had not allowed himself to cry, to doubt himself or to despair. But now, his path had finally reached a dead end. He had travelled to all the known planets inhabited by humanoid creatures, all across the 3600 sectors of the Universe. He had met the oldest beings in the Universe, the Guardians of the Universe, to ask for information and he had even ventured to explore the unknown void of the Universe, almost dying several times in the process. But it had all been for nought. He did not have any other leads. He had exhausted all his means.</p><p>"I was selfish. I'm sorry. I've only thought about myself. All these years, you've followed me and helped me without saying anything. And I never thought of what you might want to do."</p><p>"What are you talking about, you bastard! Don't make this about me!" Kyuubi shouted and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his cloak. "This isn't about what I want. It's about-"</p><p>But Kyuubi choked on his words when Naruto brought his arms around him and hugged him tightly while crying in his chest. At that moment, Naruto looked nothing like a world-famous intergalactic mercenary. He did not look like someone who had fought on equal grounds against a god and lived to tell the tale. At that moment, he looked no different than a child crying in despair.</p><p>The now giant fox brought his tails around Naruto and gently laid his chin on top of his head.</p><p>Apart from the Sage of Six Paths who had died more than a thousand years before, Kyuubi had never cared about any of the humans or beings from the Elemental Nation. Kyuubi had never missed his homeworld. On the contrary, the past century spent travelling the Universe - especially the last 60 years, ever since they found a way to unseal him from Naruto - had been the most fun and amazing period of his millennia-long life. Travelling to new worlds, exploring unknown lands, seeing all kinds of creatures, eating so many kinds of good food. It was a life better than he had ever hoped to have even in his wildest dreams. In the Elemental Nations, he had been nothing but a beast hunted by humans and imprisoned to be used as a weapon of war. He had no sweet memories of it.</p><p>But he understood Naruto's feelings. He was a man loyal to his loved ones to a fault. And the 4th Great Ninja War happened only a few weeks after the village that used to hate him had finally acknowledged him. He had become a hero and it looked like his lifelong dream of becoming a Hokage was within an arm's reach, no longer something deemed as a pipe-dream. People had started to respect him and love him. But his friends (his 'precious people') and everything he had worked so hard for had been taken away from him when he had been thrust into an unknown world. A world that he had roamed like a vagabond for almost a century. Kyuubi could understand his despair.</p><p>So he let him cry. Despite the mucus and tears staining his beautiful fur, Kyuubi did not say a word of reproach.</p><p>"It's alright, Naruto...it's alright... Let it go."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>That incident where 50 years passed in the outside world while for Naruto it was only 1 hour is what made him become immortal. It is also what made him fear/respect the void of the unknown universe. More details will be given about it as the story progresses.</p><p>(1) Time dilation is a real thing, you can check the wiki. By the way, I did not count those years towards Naruto's age. He is 113 y old without those 50 since for him it had been only 1 hour.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Rest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A long but rather narrow and sinuous lake surrounded by tall and steep mountains on all sides. It was a fjord, a place of rarely seen beauty. A simple wooden boat was floating gently on top of the water and on the boat there was a red-eyed man with thick and dark whisker-like marks on his cheeks. Despite his rather scary-looking face, there was an aura of peace and calmness around him. With a straw hat on his head and a fishing rod in his hands, the young man looked as though he was one with nature, an integral part of it. It was as though the paysage would be incomplete without him.</p><p>All of a sudden, with a quick jerk of his wrists, he pulled on the fishing rod in his hands. An enormous yellow fish about 25 feet long cast a shadow over the lake when it was yanked out of the water. It was even larger than the man's wooden boat! But there was no panic in the man's red eyes. With practised movements, he threw 5 shurikens at the large fish still in mid-air. The five shurikens moved almost as though they were remote-controlled drones not thrown projectiles and they started flying in circles around the fish. Then, the man clenched his fist and 5 very thin metallic wires appeared in his hands seemingly out of nowhere - they had been connected to the thrown shurikens from the beginning.</p><p>Before the fish even started to fall, arcs of lightning travelled through the wires and zapped the large fish to the death. Although the fish was now dead and that the lightning had dispersed by the time the fish dropped back into the water, its body was still twitching, disturbing the previously still surface of the lake. But soon, the fish became immobile, its nerves finally ceasing their activity. The fisherman tied the metallic wires connected to the fish on one end of the wooden boat and then he grabbed the paddles and started to slowly move towards the shore. On the shore, a giant bonfire was burning merrily and a nine-tailed fox that was as big as a horse was pacing around restlessly.</p><p>The man and the fox in question were none other Naruto and Kyuubi. They were in the midst of enjoying their holiday alone, on an unknown planet, away from civilisation. It was a planet from outside of the 3600 sectors of the known Universe protected by the Green Lantern Corps, in a star system located in the unknown void. Its living conditions were nearly identical to the Earth but there were no sentient creatures on this planet. There were only animals and because of that, nature was rich and pristine. It was Naruto and Kyuubi's secret refuge, a place where they sometimes went to heal their souls and rest.</p><p>⁂</p><p>One hour later, more than half of the enormous fish had already been cooked and eaten by the two of them. More exactly, it was Kyuubi that had eaten almost everything by himself. Lost in his greed and gluttony, he had even increased his size to that of an elephant so he could take bigger bites out of the fish and eat more at once.</p><p>In contrast to the voracious fox, Naruto was sitting cross-legged on the grassy ground with his eyes closed. As he drew in the natural energy of the planet, he periodically exhaled a greyish black cloud through his mouth. Once every few years Naruto came here to expel the impurities that his body accumulated by drawing in the natural energy of the planets that were inhabited by sentient species. Whenever he used his Sage Mode on such planets, he would draw on the polluted, infected energy of nature. It did not have an immediate effect on him if it was in small doses but if left it unattended, or if he drew too much of that infected energy at once, he could become like Jugo from the Elemental Nations and go berserk. Or worse, instead of going berserk, he could turn into a statue if he lost control of the natural energy in his body. He had gone through that in the past once so he was careful to not repeat his mistakes again.</p><p>"I love this planet. Such pure nature, such calmness, such peace." Naruto opened his eyes and said. "I feel like any Sage Mode user would be able to prolong their lifespan by decades if not even centuries simply by living here."</p><p>The elephant-sized fox's voice boomed from the bonfire.</p><p>"It's not about the duration of one's life but its quality. Look at me, I've lived for 1000 years but the last 60-70 years since you unsealed me from your body had been the best of my entire life. If I had to choose between the previous 1000 years in the Elemental Nations and 70 years in this dimension, I'd choose this new world in a heartbeat."</p><p>"You're right," Naruto acknowledged. "This planet is beautiful, pure and peaceful but there is nothing to do here. It's nice to come and rest once in a while but living here alone for years or decades?"</p><p>Most sentient living beings desired the companionship of other people. And Naruto was no different. Although he no longer got emotionally attached to persons and places, he still enjoyed living with people. He liked interacting with others, joking around, visiting restaurants, going to movie theatres and sometimes he liked even to just go to a bazaar and watch people haggle and argue with each other for prices. Although people had a very dark side to them, they had beautiful parts too. And the more he lived, the more Naruto understood that these two sides of people were like the 2 sides of a coin. One could not exist without the other.</p><p>As Naruto was sunken deeply into his philosophical thoughts about people's nature, a very loud beeping sound came from a small distance away. It came from the combat suit that he had left in a hut that he and his shadow clones had built when they arrived on this planet a few weeks before. Now, he was wearing casual clothes - a pair of brown pants and a light blue t-shirt. He had no weapons or any other devices on him except for the armband that contained the shurikens and ninja wire that he used in fishing.</p><p>"Haa~" he sighed in annoyance "These guys don't know how to give up."</p><p>He went to his hut and took out a wristwatch. Then, he covered his face with his hand and made a downward motion with it. A white ANBU fox mask appeared on his face and his strawberry-blond hair became bright gold while his red eyes became baby blue. Then, he tapped the screen of the wristwatch with a finger and a hologram appeared on top of it. It was a human-sized humanoid rat.</p><p>A high pitched voice came out:</p><p>"Seriously, Mr Uzumaki, where have you been these past 4 months? You didn't give us an update on your location and most of the time we couldn't even reach you through the lightwave. We've been so worried that-"</p><p>The hologram of the talking rat abruptly disappeared when Naruto cut off the transmission. But 2 seconds later, the wristwatch started beeping again.</p><p>"Hey! Why did you hang up me, huh? Here I am, all concerned about your well-being and that's how you treat me? You ingrate-"</p><p>If the mask didn't cover his face, one would be able to see that a vein started to pulse on Naruto's forehead.</p><p>"Alright. I'll cut the transmission and switch off the lightwave receptor."</p><p>"NO, WAIT!" the rat-man yelled frantically.</p><p>He calmed down when he saw Naruto did not follow up on his threat and said unhappily:</p><p>"Sheesh, you're as grumpy as ever. No pleasantries, no joking around, nothing."</p><p>"Get to the point already!" Naruto couldn't help shouting. "I do joke around with most people but you're just so irritating! Argh, why do I even put up with you?!"</p><p>A smug expression appeared on the rat man's face at the blond's outburst.</p><p>"It's simple: because I'm the best at what I do."</p><p>Naruto let out a snort but did not contradict him.</p><p>"Look, I know you said you need some time on your own, but we've got a huge job on our hands this time. To be more exact, two huge jobs. With the payment from these 2 bounties, you'll probably be able to even buy a fleet of ships strong enough to take over a planetary system. Or legally buy a small-sized terraformed moon."</p><p>When Naruto remained silent the rat-man said in exasperation:</p><p>"I hate it so much when I can't gouge your reaction because of that creepy mask of yours!"</p><p>After a few seconds of silence, Naruto spoke:</p><p>"I told you I'm retired. At least for now. I don't really have a need for money. I have enough money to live in peace for a long time. I don't care about conquering planetary systems and whatnot either. As for owning a moon..." he trailed off and started to chuckle. He already had a planet twice as large as the Earth with perfect living conditions and nobody to mess up its nature and ecosystems. It was like a paradise. What was a mere moon compared to that?</p><p>"Come on, just this once? I really need you to take this job, don't do me like this, man." the rat-man almost begged.</p><p>Naruto covered the forehead of his mask with his right hand and sighed, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.</p><p>"What did you do this time? Did you gamble your wife and your kids and lost again?"</p><p>It was not a joke, nor an exaggeration what Naruto asked. The rat-man in the hologram was a degenerate gambler, someone that actually had really gambled his wife and 6 kids and lost them in a game. Granted, it was proven that the other party had been cheating and he didn't truly lose his family in the end but the fact that he was willing to gamble away his family for money spoke volumes of what type of person he was.</p><p>"I-..." the rat-man fidgeted as if he did not know how to explain himself. "I took the payment in advance for those jobs and-, and I've already spent that money. But don't worry, getting that money back is not an issue! At all! I swear on my honour!"</p><p><em>'A gambler's honour. Pfft.' </em>Naruto inwardly said but stayed silent and let him continue.</p><p>"The problem is that 1 month has already passed since I accepted those bounties on your behalf and they told me they don't need their money back. Either we complete the mission or they will send the Gordanians after me."</p><p>Naruto felt the beginning of a huge headache. Anything involving the Gordanians was going to be nasty - they were infamous for being a warmongering race hell-bent on conquering and enslaving other planets.</p><p>"Explain."</p><p>That single word made the rat-man tremble. He understood that Naruto was slowly getting pissed and he also knew better than most people that as easy-going and amiable Naruto seemed to be, it was a terrible thing when he got truly angry.</p><p>A few minutes later, when the rat-man was done explaining and anxiously waiting for the verdict, Naruto asked:</p><p>"So, the first job you accepted was from the Psions. They want me to capture someone for them to experiment on him... tell me, Rui Nak, when have I ever accepted any jobs from those bastards?"</p><p>"Mr Uzumaki, please don't get angry!" the rat-man - now named Rui Nak - said quickly, desperately trying to stop Naruto from getting angrier at him than he already was. "I've checked the past of that bounty target. I spent a lot of resources for that but I did find out that he's caused several world wars and genocides in his homeworld. Whatever the Psions will do to him, he fully deserves it!"</p><p>Feeling that Naruto was mollified by his explanation, Rui Nak continued:</p><p>"As for the second job, I took it especially because it was connected to the first one. The King of Tamaran sold his youngest daughter to the Gordanians, as a slave, for the sake of peace. But the Queen of Tamaran, his wife, secretly put out a bounty to rescue her daughter. My sources tell me that the Gordanians demanded the princesses of the royal family of Tamaran at the request of the Psions."</p><p>"So you mean to say I'll be hitting two birds with one stone?"</p><p>Rui Nak nodded vigorously.</p><p>"Exactly! You can capture the target of the bounty offered by Psions and after you hand him over to them, you can also raid their base and rescue the princess of Tamaran."</p><p>Naruto hummed in thought.</p><p>"I'll need you to send me all the data you have on the bounty offered by the Psions. I will be the one to decide if the target really is a scumbag or not."</p><p>"Absolutely!" the rat-man said eagerly.</p><p>⁂</p><p>A few hours later, Naruto was sitting next to a campfire with his back resting against a tree as he read on a tablet the information that Rui Nak had sent him in regards to not only the Psions' bounty but also about the current state of affairs in Tamaran, the Gordanians' attack. and the enslaved princess.</p><p>"This guy really is the best at what he's doing, but sometimes I feel like I wanna strangle him to death," Naruto said in annoyance.</p><p>Rui Nak was an information broker, one of the best - if not <em>the </em>best - in the galaxy. Naruto was not the only bounty hunter in partnership with him. Even Lobo took bounties from him once in a while. Rui Nak was not subordinated to anyone. He was a free agent, simply selling information to anyone who paid him. In spite of his despicable morals and degenerated persona, as a businessman, Rui Nak was excellent. He was an extremely well-connected person - there was not an inhabited planetary system or prison planet in the 3600 sectors of the known universe where he did not know a guy or two. He made it his job to learn all about the latest bounties posted by the major powers of the Galaxy and contact the bounty hunters that might be interested in them. The bounty hunters were happy to get a juicy job, the clients were happy to have their problems solved and Rui Nak himself was happy to get a hefty commission from the bounty hunters and even from the clients themselves if they contacted him directly. The rat-man was not the sole information broker operating on an intergalactic level but he was among the best.</p><p>"He's definitely not gonna get even one coin as commission from my reward after the shit he pulled."</p><p>Kyuubi was curled up very close to the fire in his tiny form as a fox cub and yawned lazily every once in a while.</p><p>"You could've just ignored him and not taken the job. But you couldn't help playing the hero again, eh?" Kyuubi jabbed at him.</p><p>Naruto glared at the fox and said in retort:</p><p>"What hero? I'm getting paid for it. Not to mention, we've worked together for so many years."</p><p>"Mhm. Keep telling yourself that."</p><p>Seeing Naruto becoming silent at his words, Kyuubi asked:</p><p>"So? Where are we going now?"</p><p>"To Earth."</p><p>"What would the Psions want from Earth?" Kyuubi raised his head from his front paws and asked, appearing as though he was very intrigued.</p><p>"Apparently, it's someone who has lived for nearly 50,000 years. He's the one who had caused the two deadliest wars in Earth's history and numerous other atrocities. A human named Vandal Savage. I think the Psions will dissect him to the last atom to see what makes him tick, what gave him immortality when everyone else on Earth lives up to a century at most."</p><p>"Didn't think we'd get back to Earth so soon. Not that I have anything against it, mind you." Kyuubi said and the nine fluffy tails at his back started wagging.</p><p>Naruto grinned when he looked at the tiny fox's unveiled excitement.</p><p>"Oho, you look excited. I wonder why? My bet is that you can't wait for that woman to give you some belly rubs again~" he said snidely.</p><p>"Y-you!" Kyuubi sputtered at the unexpected verbal attack. "What does that have to do with anything!"</p><p>"Oh really now? Then tell me, what's the tail-wagging for?"</p><p>Kyuubi bit on his own treacherous tails in embarrassment. At the memory of the blissful feeling from the Amazon princess' gentle caresses, his tails had involuntarily started wagging on their own, out of his control. Kyuubi did not understand himself why he had liked it that much; he did not know that it was because of the gift that the Olympian Goddess of the Hunt and Wilderness had blessed Wonder Woman with.</p><p>"If only the people from our homeworld could see this: the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest bijuu in existence, wagging his tails like a dog and purring like a cat from a simple belly rub! You were so cute! So <em>adorable</em>! Wahahaha!"</p><p>But as he laughed out loud, Naruto suddenly jumped up to his feet and, immediately after, he leapt into the tree behind him. From there, he broke into a mad dash, shinobi-jumping from one tree to another as quickly as he could. That's because a gigantic nine-tailed fox, the mighty Kyuubi in his original form as a tailed beast had suddenly smashed the spot he had been sitting on before with his immense claws. Hundreds of feet tall and wide and 9 tails that were just as huge as his main body - even the enormous trees of that virgin planet were dwarfed by his gigantic size. Now, he was a behemoth.</p><p><em><strong>"Naruto! Don't let me get my hands on you!" </strong></em>Kyuubi's demonic roar rang and the shockwaves of his roar flattened to the ground the forest around him for miles.</p><p>In his original form, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox truly was like a natural disaster, a calamity. But in front of that terrible might, obnoxious laughter could be heard in the distance, just as loud as his roar. Naruto had purposely infused his chakra in his voice, to make sure that the fox heard it.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Vandal Savage</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"How dare you burst in and ruin my wedding?!" a petite blonde woman said accusatorily.</p><p>In front of her, behind the locked bars of a cell, a tall and athletic woman was chained up to the wall with a pair of very high tech shackles that even someone of her strength could not break. She was none other than Wonder Woman.</p><p>"Aren't you even curious about what Savage is up to? He's dangerous!"</p><p>"Why? Do you think he might throw a tank through my wall?" the blonde woman crossed her arms and said sarcastically.</p><p>Only a few hours ago, Wonder Woman had crashed the blonde woman's wedding by throwing a tank through the walls of the church where the ceremony was being held. It was the wedding of Vandal Savage and Princess Audrey, the daughter of King Gustav, the ruler of Kaznia.</p><p>"Grow up! He's obviously using you. He's amassing military and political power."</p><p>"For what?"</p><p>"What do you think? He's got to be stopped!" Wonder Woman shouted, finally reaching the end of her patience.</p><p>"You're a raving lunatic. Not to say you weren't fun to go clubbing with~"</p><p>"This isn't a joke, Audrey. I think Savage is responsible for your father's sudden illness." Wonder Woman tried to reason with her but the princess - now queen - shot back angrily:</p><p>"And I think you've just crossed a line!"</p><p>"Don't walk away, Audrey. You're making a big mistake."</p><p>"I can do whatever I please! Surely, you've noticed by now!" she shot back and strolled out of the prison without sparing her another glance.</p><p>Wonder Woman frowned and started to struggle once more to break her shackles but it was to no avail. Just then, a very strange feeling washed over her, a sensation that made her become very alert. While she did not know what to make of it, she heard the sound of a man's footsteps approaching her cell.</p><p>"You! What are you doing here?!" Wonder Woman said greatly surprised.</p><p>A white ANBU fox mask, blond hair, a fur-collared black cloak that covered his entire body and a tiny fox cub curled up on his right shoulder, looking as though it was glued to it: the newcomer was none other than the alien mercenary that had rescued and extorted Superman of a huge sum of money. But almost 6 months had passed since then and Wonder Woman had almost forgotten about the strange alien and his gluttonous talking fox. She had certainly not expected to see him again, much less at that moment, in the prison inside the royal castle of Kaznia.</p><p>"Why is it that whenever I meet one of you guys, you're locked up in a cell?" Naruto said with a laugh.</p><p>When he had met Superman, the Kryptonian had been locked up by the Preserver in a cell. Now when he was meeting Wonder Woman again after half a year, she was locked up in a cell too by Vandal Savage.</p><p>At first, Wonder Woman's intention had been to ask for help but she was getting increasingly weirded out by the situation.</p><p>"What are you doing on Earth? How are the guards right next to you not reacting to your presence? Did Vandal Savage somehow hire you?" she asked in a low voice.</p><p>Naruto waved a hand as to reassure her and said:</p><p>"Don't worry. Vandal Savage is not my employer. He's my bounty. As for why these men can't see me, they're under an illusion. Something like a spell."</p><p>It turned out that the strange sensation she was feeling and her instinctual alertness were due to the illusion that he had cast.</p><p>"Is what you said to that bratty princess earlier true? Is Vandal as bad as you claim?" he asked.</p><p>"Yes. He's the one who orchestrated World War 2 and caused the deaths of millions of people! He's- [...]"</p><p>"She's not lying," Kyuubi whispered. Due to his Negative Emotions Sensing, no lies or negative emotions could escape his radar.</p><p>Naruto had read up on the data about Vandal Savage that Rui Nak had provided to him but he always researched the veracity of his information by interacting with the locals and doing some research of his own on-site. He never trusted someone's words blindly.</p><p>"Alright, thank you," Naruto said and stepped away, about to leave.</p><p>"Hey! Don't just leave, help me out!"</p><p>When Naruto stopped in his tracks but did not immediately say anything, Wonder Woman added quickly, thinking that he was going to try to extort her of money too as he had done with Superman half a year ago:</p><p>"If you want gold, I'll give you as much gold as you want!"</p><p>She was the Princess of the Amazons. She may not be as rich as a billionaire like Batman but the Amazons had enough treasures and ancient artefacts for her to live in luxury like not many other women on Earth could afford. She just chose not to because of her upbringing as a warrior.</p><p>"Sorry, princess, no can do. I have a feeling that if I let you out of this cell, you'll try to get in my way and stop me from doing my thing."</p><p>Seeing the furious glare she threw at him, Naruto involuntarily chuckled.</p><p>"Relax. One of your hero friends - I think Batman was his name? - is actually hiding just a few feet away. I think he's been waiting for a chance to break you out from your cell but he fell under my genjutsu like the rest of the guards. Unlike you who seem to have some innate resistance to magic, he's just an ordinary man. Anyway, once I collect my bounty, I'll release the illusion and he'll free you too."</p><p>With that, he waved in good-bye merrily and left.</p><p>"Hey! Wait!" Wonder Woman shouted after him but he just continued to walk.</p><p>But as Naruto left the cell behind him, Kyuubi suddenly jumped off from his shoulder.</p><p>"Yo, Kurama, what's up?"</p><p>"You go ahead and capture that muppet. I'll catch up a bit later." Kyuubi said.</p><p>Naruto looked at him strangely.</p><p>"Not. A. Word!" Kyuubi growled threateningly but Naruto would not be himself if he didn't poke fun at him when he had the chance.</p><p>"You liiike her~"</p><p>"Shut up! Just get going and stop wasting time!" Kyuubi barked at him.</p><p>After that, although Naruto did not continue to tease him, his chortles made Kyuubi gnash his teeth. Though he could not fully understand it himself, Kyuubi had an inexplicable feeling of attachment to the woman. It was ridiculous to him as well to believe that it was all because of just a belly rub.</p><p>In truth, Kyuubi's feeling of attachment to Wonder Woman was not a strong bond or anything like being willing to put himself in danger for her sake. It was just goodwill. But that slight goodwill he felt for her was significant enough for him to not be comfortable with ignoring her plight like he would normally do with other humans. In the first place, it would not cost him anything to just release Wonder Woman from her shackles once Naruto accomplished his mission.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Although his masking technique made his eyes look blue, in reality, currently, his eyes were red and his pupils looked like a cross between a slit and a horizontal bar. At that moment, every single life signature in the castle was as clear in his perception as though he could see them with his own eyes. Due to his Sage Mode, it was a piece of cake for Naruto to find Vandal Savage's location because his life signature was clearly different from other humans. It was quite similar to that of the Amazon princess locked in the cell; not quite as strong, but still similar.</p><p><em>'Is that woman immortal like Vandal Savage too? Immortal like me?' </em>Naruto asked himself intrigued.</p><p>When he had come to Earth the first time around he had not used his Sage Mode as he had had no reason to. Unless it was for the sake of a mission, he would generally prefer to not use his Sage Mode on the planets inhabited by sentient creatures due to the high degree of pollution of nature and the harmful effects that drawing such infected energy would have on him when taken in large doses.</p><p>Soon enough, he reached the control room. In a puff of smoke, his body transformed into that of a housefly. Henge was one of the first and easiest techniques that shinobi used to learn back in his homeworld. Even 10-year-old kids could perform it. But, despite its simplicity, it was invaluable for any spy, sabotage, or assassination missions that had to be completed covertly.</p><p>"Vandal, what do you think you are doing?!" the new Queen of Kaznia asked in disbelief.</p><p>Just a few moments before that, Colonel Vox (Vandal Savage's right-hand man) had confirmed the destruction of the Justice League's spacecraft.</p><p>"Destroying the Justice League. Building a railgun. Assuming total dominion over the nations of the Earth." Vandal Savage said from his throne-like seat.</p><p>Then, he chuckled.</p><p>"Sweet foolish child. Wonder Woman was right all along."</p><p>"Ridiculous! You'd have to be over 100 years old!" Queen Audrey denied.</p><p>"I'm far older than that," Vandal Savage boasted. "It was over 25 thousand years ago when I got this power. While my fellows cowered with fear, I dared to approach the strangely glowing rock that fell from the sky. It was warm and the night was very cold. I slept curled up next to it, not realizing what its radiation would do to me. But over the millennia that followed, as I watched those around me grow old and die while I remained unchanged, I discovered the truth. I came to accept my destiny: I live to rule."</p><p>"Delusions of grandeur aside, I rule Kaznia." Queen Audrey shot back.</p><p>"That's why I married you," Vandal Savage said smugly. "It's also why I poisoned your father."</p><p>"You poisoned my father?!" she yelled and slapped him with all of her strength, leaving a trail of bloodied scratches on his face.</p><p>But after Vandal Savage grabbed her arms and immobilized her, she grew shocked when she saw the clawed skin of his cheek heal up in a second.</p><p>"Guards, confine this brat to her quarters."</p><p>At his words, two soldiers grabbed the young queen roughly and started to drag her outside.</p><p>But everyone in the room froze when a masked man appeared behind Savage Vandal out of nowhere. The self-entitled king of Kaznia suddenly found his feet leaving the ground when a steel-like hand clenched around his neck and lifted him in the air.</p><p>A perfect Russian came out of the masked man's mouth:</p><p>"My mission was to capture you and hand you over in a perfect condition, but trash like you doesn't deserve to live even as a lab rat."</p><p>At that moment, the soldiers in the control room and Colonel Vox woke up from their stupor and immediately started to yell as they pointed their weapons at him:</p><p>"Release him immediately!"</p><p>Vandal Savage also struggled to say despite his throat being choked:</p><p>"Whatever you were paid, I'll give you double. No, triple!"</p><p>But just as his words ended, Naruto's other hand clenched into a fist and punched a hole into his back, through his chest, obliterating his heart.</p><p>A large amount of blood splattered over Queen Audrey and the two guards that had been the closest to him. The woman screamed in terror and she lost strength in her legs. The guards themselves were petrified and could not keep a hold of her as she collapsed on the floor.</p><p>"Kill him!" Colonel Vox hollered and then he opened his mouth wide and initiated his sonic scream. But even before the sound waves could reach their target, a blade of pressurised air separated his head from the rest of his body. The other soldiers in the room became still like statues. They did not dare to even move a muscle.</p><p>In the deathly silence that instilled, a sudden coughing noise came from Vandal Savage's previously lifeless body.</p><p>"I am immortal." <em>*cough* </em>"I can't be killed. There is nothing. Absolutely nothing that you can do to me."</p><p>As he said that, Vandal Savage even broke into raspy laughter. But his laughter died in his throat when another blade of wind beheaded him too like his subordinate.</p><p>"What do you know, I got to kill you twice and even complete my bounty too. This must be my lucky day," Naruto chuckled "Let's see how you're going to revive in an inanimate space, devoid of air, where even time doesn't exist."</p><p>He took out 2 sealing scrolls from his cloak and unfurled them unhurriedly. Without even looking at the soldiers, he warned them:</p><p>"Don't make any moves. Don't give me a reason to kill you."</p><p>What a joke. The soldiers around were scared to even breathe too loud, let alone entertain any thoughts of acting against him at that moment. They were just average humans while, in their eyes, he looked like a demon. Even the bratty queen, Audrey, had none of her previous haughtiness. Her face was livid as she watched him, too terrified to move even an inch from where she had fallen.</p><p>But Naruto himself could not care less about anyone else in the room. He had no interest in killing the others. He had been a shinobi in the past. In a way, he had been military as well. He knew that the soldiers were only following orders. Nevertheless, if they were to shoot at him, he would show no mercy, like with Colonel Vox.</p><p>He threw one of the scrolls on Vandal Savage's head and the other one on the rest of his body making them vanish in two small clouds of white smoke.</p><p>Bringing a finger to his left year, Naruto spoke:</p><p>"Aight, Kurama, I'm done here. Kiss your girlfriend good-bye and meet me at the ship."</p><p><em>"She's not my girlfriend you piece of-" </em>Kyuubi yelled into his earpiece but Naruto cut off the connection with a chuckle.</p><p>After he grabbed the two sealing scrolls from the floor and pocketed them inside his cloak, he disappeared, leaving only a few arcs of yellow and black light flickering in his wake.</p><p>⁂</p><p>A few minutes after Naruto teleported away from the room, Batman and Wonder Woman burst through the doors of the control room. But they only found an obscene amount of blood splattered everywhere. Soaked with Vandal Savage's blood, Queen Audrey was still lying on the floor with a blank look on her face while the rest of the soldiers in the room were looking at each other filled with helplessness and uncertainty. They did not know what they were supposed to do in that situation.</p><p>Despite Queen Audrey's previous behaviour towards her, Wonder Woman came to her and asked kindly:</p><p>"Audrey, can you tell me what happened?"</p><p>But the blonde woman was in shock. She was incapable of speech at that moment, just staring blankly at the pool of blood on the floor.</p><p>"You, tell me what happened here!" Batman ordered one of the soldiers.</p><p>After getting the full story from the soldier, Batman's hands clenched into fists. Not for the first time since he had joined the Justice League, he had found out the hard way what it meant to be a part of a team of superheroes while he had no superpowers himself. He had fallen prey to the alien mercenary's illusion technique without even being aware of it, just like the men guarding Wonder Woman's cell. Batman was confident about fighting against anyone if he was allowed enough time to prepare and make plans. But without preparation time, in front of an unexpected situation, he was too vulnerable. He was only human.</p><p>Even more alarming for Batman than falling into Naruto's illusion was that Martian Manhunter at the Watchtower had not detected an alien ship approaching the Earth. That was a massive breach in their defence. What if this time around, the alien mercenary's mission had been to capture the president of the United States instead of the ruler of Kaznia? What would have happened? The Justice League had been created primarily with the purpose of protecting the Earth from the aliens that would try to invade. If aliens could come to Earth and wreak havoc as they pleased then what did the Justice League even exist for anymore? They had to take action and they had to do it fast.</p><p>"Wonder Woman, let's go. We have to meet with the rest of the Justice League immediately."</p><p>"But Audrey is... I can't just leave her like that. She is no condition to-"</p><p>Batman glared at her and although he did not shout, the words he spoke were very sharp:</p><p>"What's more important? Consoling a spoiled little girl or making sure the Earth is safe? I thought you knew better than that."</p><p>Wonder Woman looked at him startled. The rough way in which Batman spoke to her now was unlike him. She thought that the two of them had become a little closer after sharing a dance yesterday at the engagement party of then-princess Audrey and Vandal Savage.</p><p>But Wonder Woman had no way of knowing just how rattled Batman was because of his vulnerability as a human and that he was not exactly calm at that moment. She thought that Batman was acting like an asshole to her on purpose, to distance himself from her. Because he had done that a few times over the past year since she joined the Justice League. He had even made it clear once that he did not want anyone else in his life, especially not a teammate.</p><p>In the end, Wonder Woman did not comment anything about her hurt feelings. She chose to stay silent and followed Batman to their Javelin to meet with the rest of the Justice League at the Watchtower.</p><p>However, in her heart, she gave up on any thoughts she might have had about a possible relationship with Batman. He was a good man with qualities worthy of admiration such as his courage, tenacity and resourcefulness but, in the end, Wonder Woman was a valiant warrior and a princess blessed by the Gods themselves. She was not a weak and needy woman that would blindly and endlessly chase someone that did not want her. She was Diana, Princess of the Amazons. She had her pride and dignity too.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We've seen a few times in the canon that Batman tends to act a bit impulsively when he is reminded of how weak he is compared to the rest of his teammates in the Justice League. He is also known for having a sharp tongue so I feel like he did not go overboard in this chapter. I believe Wonder Woman was in character too. But feel free to let me know if you think otherwise. I'm looking forward to your reviews, including constructive criticism</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Starfire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Why have you gathered us all here today, Batman?" Green Lantern asked.</p><p>It was only a few minutes after Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter sabotaged the International Space Station. To prevent anyone from getting their hands on that powerful railgun, they blew up the whole satellite. Everyone else on board - the astronauts and Kaznia's agents too - was taken out and brought to the Watchtower thanks to Green Lantern's power ring. But it was only temporary. They had to take them back to Earth.</p><p>All the members of the Justice League were gathered in the conference room; except for Wonder Woman, the rest were looking at Batman, waiting for an explanation.</p><p>"Do you remember that alien mercenary that rescued Superman half a year ago? - He's back. He came back to Earth and our Watchtower's radar couldn't detect it all."</p><p>"So that was the big emergency?" Hawkgirl scoffed. "Last time we met him, he wasn't a psychopath. He saved Superman's life."</p><p>"Appearances can be deceiving. He's dangerous. He put me under an illusion and I didn't even know it until he lifted the spell himself. While Wonder Woman was imprisoned and I was under that illusion, he broke into Vandal Savage's control room and cut off his head."</p><p>A momentary silence descended. In their memories, the alien mercenary and his talking fox did not strike them as the cold-blooded killer type. If anything, he seemed like a decent person at heart because he had gone out of his way to save Superman and Supergirl.</p><p>It was Green Lantern that broke the silence:</p><p>"As far as I'm concerned, good riddance."</p><p>Seeing the way everyone was looking at him, he said:</p><p>"That madman poisoned the king of a country, destroyed 3 US Navy ships killing almost everyone on board and then tried to start World War 3. I'll say it again, good riddance! Not to mention what he did in World War 2 too."</p><p>When presented with the hard facts nobody could retort against his words. Vandal Savage was one of the worst scourges of the Earth.</p><p>Batman narrowed his eyes as he spoke:</p><p>"This guy is a mercenary. He'll do whatever he's paid for. What if his target was the US president instead of Vandal Savage? What could we have done to stop him when we can't even detect him?"</p><p>At his words, everyone finally realized the gravity of the situation, what Batman was worried about.</p><p>"We've banded together and created the Justice League after Imperium nearly took over our planet almost 1 year ago. Our purpose, as the Justice League, was primarily to defend against alien threats. If we can't do that, what is the Justice League needed for anymore? We don't need to work together just to keep in check the criminals with superpowers - we've been doing that just fine, solo, long before the Justice League was formed."</p><p>Superman nodded and said in support to his words:</p><p>"Batman is right. We're not the only ones who took the responsibility of protecting the innocent. Almost every large city has its own local hero or group of heroes that protect it, just like us. As the Justice League, we must not forget about our purpose."</p><p>As they started to discuss how to improve Earth's defences against external threats, an alarm started to blare from the Watchtower's control room. Flash was the first to arrive and see the reason: an enormous alien ship could be seen heading towards Earth at a very high speed.</p><p>⁂</p><p><em>"Even after all these years, I can't see what you like so much about ramen. The taste is nothing special and there is so little meat. We're also in the middle of a job, aren't we?"</em> Kyuubi's voice sounded in Naruto's earpiece.</p><p>Naruto brought the bowl of ramen to his mouth and drank all the remaining soup in one breath.</p><p>"Shut up, when was the last time I had ramen? Half a year ago! Six months!"</p><p>Suddenly, a very loud growling sound almost made Naruto go deaf in one year.</p><p>"Oy, Kurama, the hell was that? What are you doing?"</p><p><em>"Hehe, just a stupid bear that didn't know its place. I'm going to eat roasted bear now. Talk to you later."</em> Kyuubi said and then cut off his transmission.</p><p>"Good grief," Naruto said and chuckled at Kyuubi's antics.</p><p>After capturing Vandal Savage, Naruto did not immediately leave the Earth. Earth was one of the very few planets where people cooked ramen and he had not eaten any in half a year, since the last time he came to Earth. Naturally, he would not pass on the opportunity to have some again. But Kyuubi did not tag along with him this time around and chose instead to wander through the Balkan Mountains (where Kaznia was located) in the meantime, having some fun of his own.</p><p>As for Naruto, he flew halfway across the planet, from Southeastern Europe to the Northeastern coast of the American continent, to Boston City, where he had eaten ramen the last time. While the Justice League was having a very serious discussion concerning the danger that Naruto posed, the man in question was in a world of happiness as mountains of empty bowls of ramen piled up on his table. Since it was early morning on the Eastern Coast of America at that moment, there were other customers besides him in the restaurant too. It goes without saying that his outrageous eating immediately became the focus of their attention. Wearing a mask while eating did not do him any favours either.</p><p>"Some crazy alien crashed on Earth again...Hey, Russel, turn up the volume," one of the customers asked the clerk behind the counter. It looked like the customer in question was a regular because the clerk listened to his request and turned up the volume on the TV hanging above the counter.</p><p>Naruto threw a passing glance at the screen but he immediately focused his full attention on it when he saw the contents of the news report.</p><p>
  <em>"[...] an alien object crashed in the centre of Jump City just 10 minutes ago. The sole survivor of the crash appears to be a young woman in her late teens but it became clear that she was not human when she spoke in an alien language and started smashing the walls of the surrounding buildings with her hands. Charles Rock is at the scene with more information [...]"</em>
</p><p>As the news anchor spoke, a live footage started playing. But when Naruto saw who that alien was, he said slowly:</p><p>"No fucking way!"</p><p>He tapped quickly on his wristwatch and a hologram appeared from it: it was the 3D image of a young woman in her late teens with golden-coloured skin, long, wavy red hair, and bright green eyes.</p><p>"Void, what are the chances?!"</p><p>The girl in the hologram coming from his wristwatch was the very same person as the berserk alien on the news report. It was none other than Koriand'r, the princess of Tamaran who Naruto was supposed to rescue from the Psions.</p><p>⁂</p><p>An Almeracian warship was flying at the fastest speed it was capable of in Earth's atmosphere. The moment Naruto realized that the alien that had crashed into Jump City was his bounty, he ditched his ramen in a heartbeat and teleported back to his ship. To cover the distance between Boston and Jump City, Earth's commercial aeroplanes would need to fly for a few good hours. One city was on the East Coast while the other one was on the West Coast of the USA. In contrast, it took him only a few minutes.</p><p>However, despite his speedy arrival, by the time he got there, the central district was already trashed as if it had gone through a war. Destroyed buildings, burning cars, cracked streets, and civilians running away in panic.</p><p>In the middle of all that destruction, the Tammarean princess was shooting energy bolts from her cuffed hands while screaming in an alien language. Opposite of her, three peculiar teenagers were running and dodging as though their very lives were on the line...and that was the actual case. In her desperation and rage, Koriand'r was shooting energy blasts everywhere around her.</p><p>"That was super close." a green-skinned boy wearing a helmet said while panting.</p><p>"Girl is gonna wreck the whole city!" another one of them said. It was a very buff young man dressed in casual clothes and a hoodie covering his head. Going by the red glow in his left eye, it seemed like he was not entirely human.</p><p>"I won't let her! I won't lose this fight!" the third one said. It was a black-haired boy dressed in a green and red costume. A thin black mask covered his eyes.</p><p>The three of them were none other than Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg. At Robin's words, they jumped away from the bus behind which they had taken cover and rushed at the alien girl who had fallen to her knees in exhaustion. But their sight suddenly turned ashen-black and they stopped in their tracks.</p><p>"Maybe fighting isn't the answer." a girl said as she walked out of a side-alley. Her entire body was covered by a hooded purple cloak.</p><p>Further talk among the 4 teens stopped, however, when someone dropped from the sky almost like a meteorite and the entire street was shaken by the powerful tremor.</p><p>"Who are you?" Robin shouted and grabbed a birdrang from his utility belt.</p><p>It looked like the newcomer did not hear him because he started walking towards the kneeling girl without sparing the other 4 a glance.</p><p>"Don't come any closer!" Koriand'r shouted hysterically and pointed her cuffed arms at him as energy bolts formed in her hands.</p><p>Unlike the teens from before, Naruto had no issues with understanding her words thanks to his high tech translating device.</p><p>"I'm not gonna hurt you. Your parents hired me to rescue you."</p><p>Naruto had expected at the mention of her parents for the girl to calm down but instead, her face became twisted in anger and she screamed as she shot two very powerful bolts of energy from her hands. Though startled, he was not caught off-guard. He had been cautious from the beginning because he knew very well just how dangerous a cornered beast could be. With a stomp of his foot, the street in front of his feet rose to make a wall in front of him, just in time to block the green energy bolts. The wall was blasted to smithereens but the girl had poured the last of her strength in that attack. Then, she collapsed back on the ground powerlessly. She no longer posed any threat.</p><p>"It's alright, little girl. Just go to sleep." Naruto said and he formed a ram seal with his hands.</p><p>Though Koriand'r was able to detect the unknown energy that invaded her body she was too exhausted to resist against it. Her eyes closed against her will and she fell on her side, succumbing into a genjutsu-induced deep sleep. It was the same technique that Kabuto had cast over the stadium where Naruto's first Chunin Exams had taken place when he was a young genin. That is to say that it was an area-of-effect technique: the alien princess was not the only one to be forced into a deep sleep but 2 of the three boys on the sidelines also fell on the ground asleep with Beast Boy even snoring out loud.</p><p>The only ones who could hold their composure and resist the genjutsu were the cloaked girl, Raven, and Cyborg, due to him being half-robot.</p><p>Over the past century, Naruto had never stopped training his taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu, the three main arts of a shinobi. He had achieved an impressive feat in his ninjutsu due to his Shadow Clones - he had mastered all 5 nature transformations and even the yin and yang releases. His taijutsu had become flawless as well. Due to knowing that if he found a way back home he would have to fight against the Rabbit Goddess, Naruto had never slacked in his training.</p><p>But genjutsu had never been his strong point. He had no talent in that area and hard work could only take one so far. Although he became proficient enough with it to fool the senses of regular people, those with decent magic resistance and any half-decent magic-user could resist his genjutsu without problems. In that regard, the aforementioned girl, Raven, was more than "half-decent" when it came to magic.</p><p>Black light appeared around Raven's hands and her eyes glowed beneath her hood. Cyborg's hand transformed into a cannon too as he shouted:</p><p>"What did you do to them?"</p><p>But Naruto did not have time to reply because a beam of red light blew up the place in front of his feet. It was a warning shot, coming from none other than Superman. And he was not alone. Alongside him were also Flash, Batman and Hawkgirl. The ship that the Watchtower had detected was a Gordanian ship from which Koriand'r had broken out - Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman were investigating it at that moment.</p><p>Now, he was surrounded from all sides by the 4 members of the Justice League and 2 of the local heroes of Jump City.</p><p>"Do not move!" Superman demanded.</p><p>Naruto frowned behind his mask.</p><p>"Why did you come back to Earth? And why did you kill Vandal Savage?"</p><p>"Gee, Superman, why would a mercenary capture someone? Maybe because someone paid me to?"</p><p>Superman frowned at his sarcasm.</p><p>"Why are y'all even mad? I got rid of a mass murderer for you, for free. For all I know, you should be grateful. No lengthy trials, no chance for him to buy his way out with bribes and good lawyers and no chance for him to escape prison again either. He's finished."</p><p>"That's not how things work on Earth," Batman retorted. "No-one has the right to take the law in their hands and kill."</p><p>Naruto let out a drawn-out sigh.</p><p>"Aye, aye, whatever you say. I'm not in the mood for polemics. Look, I'll just get my bounty and be out of here."</p><p>Then, under their eyes, he bent down and grabbed the sleeping princess from the ground and put her on his wide shoulder.</p><p>"Put the girl down," Superman ordered as he started making steps towards him.</p><p>"She's my bounty. And she's not an Earthling. This has nothing to do with you." Naruto said calmly, trying to reason with them.</p><p>However, in the next moment, a red blur rushed at him from behind at the speed of sound. But with a light stomp of his foot, dangerous-looking spikes burst from the ground, almost impaling the attacker. The speedster was forced to jump high up in the air at the very last moment and abandon his attacking attempt.</p><p>A clone appeared next to Naruto and grabbed the princess from his shoulder. Then, he turned towards the heroes surrounding him and warned:</p><p>"I'm saying it one last time: this has nothing to do with you. Back off before things get ugly. I don't want to hurt you."</p><p>Generally, Naruto tried to not get into altercations with good-natured people. He did not want to kill or maim people that did not deserve it. However, because he was not bound by their tight morals, once in a while, scenes like the current one still took place.</p><p>"Oh, I don't know who'll get hurt in the end," Hawkgirl said and her mace shone menacingly with electricity.</p><p>"I suggest you let go of that girl and hand over Vandal Savage's remains too. After that, we won't stop you from leaving. You can leave the Earth and never come back." Batman said.</p><p>Naruto no longer spoke. He prepared for fighting. Naturally, in normal conditions, he could have just teleported back to his ship and then be on his way. But with Koriand'r in his custody, things were different. He was more than capable of teleporting her alongside him but the problem came after that. He did not know for how long the genjutsu that he had placed on her would last. His skill with genjutsu was unreliable.</p><p>
  <em>'If she wakes up in my ship and starts throwing around her energy bolts, my ship will be toasted.'</em>
</p><p>Initially, he had intended to explain the Tamaranean princess the situation and make her come willingly. But that idea flew out of the window with the Justice League's appearance. Of course, he also had another option: to beat the crap out of the girl until she became physically unable to even move... but Naruto was not the kind to raise his hands against innocents. Especially since his mission was supposed to be about rescuing and protecting her, not breaking her arms and legs.</p><p>But just then, a huge hologram appeared in the sky. It was the image of a muscular humanoid lizard with red eyes and metallic wings. It was a Gordanian. A sonorous voice reverberated through the entire city:</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>"People of Earth. We come to your planet to hunt down an escaped prisoner. A very dangerous prisoner. Do not interfere and we will leave your city with minimum damage. But if you attempt to assist her, your destruction will be absolute."</strong>
  </em>
</p><p>Just as the Gordanian's words ended, Martian Manhunter's voice sounded in Batman's earpiece.</p><p>"Batman, the Gordanians on the ship do not want to negotiate. We cannot approach them easily either. They have their weapons aimed at us."</p><p>True to the Martian's words, only a few moments later, a swarm of flying Gordanians appeared in the sky above Jump City. There were almost a hundred of them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Caterpillar</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For those who might think the League was acting out of character in the previous chapter - please rewatch "The Return" episode of the animated series. When Amazo came back for Luthor, every single member of the Justice League was mobilized and they waited for the android in the space outside the Earth (and not only), making multiple lines of defence and fought against him with all their powers and technology available - even with space ships. All that just to protect Lex Luthor, someone who had repeatedly tried to kill Superman, Supergirl and the rest of the League, someone who had made deals with terrorists, killed thousands of people and committed all kinds of crimes. DC loves its criminals almost more than its heroes. Anyway, my rant aside, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Gordanians? Why are they here?!"</p><p>The words came out of Hawkgirl mouth. Originally, she was more than ready to start brawling against the masked alien mercenary but the moment the immense hologram of the Gordanian ship's commander appeared in the sky, she immediately changed her mind. She was not the only one either - Green Lantern was of the same mind as well. Though the Gordanian Intergalactic Empire was from outside the 3600 space sectors regulated by the Green Lantern Corps, most of the Green Lanterns were aware of their evil deeds.</p><p>"Superman, we are focusing on the wrong guy." Green Lantern transmitted through his earpiece. He was currently flying very high up in the air, in front of the Gordanian ship together with Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. "I've heard about the Gordanians before. They're-"</p><p>Hawkgirl cut him in the middle and continued his words:</p><p>"-an intergalactic empire hell-bent on conquering and enslaving the galaxy. My people, the Thanagarians, have been at war against them for generations! They're the worst scum of the Universe, pieces of trash that conquer planets and sell their inhabitants as slaves!"</p><p>Her voice was quivering with anger. The hate in her voice could not be faked...her hatred for Gordanians had been ingrained in her since she was a frail child. They were her race's archenemy.</p><p>It did not take a genius to realize that the alien girl was an escaped slave from one of the worlds enslaved by the Gordanians. They also reached the conclusion that the mercenary had no intention to harm her given that he had not attacked her and had only put her to sleep.</p><p>Nevertheless, Naruto had no way of knowing what the Justice League was talking about amongst themselves. When Superman got within a 25 feet long distance from him, he thought that they were finally going to attack him.</p><p>"I've warned you, boy. I gave you a chance to back away. You only have yourself to blame!" he spoke coldly.</p><p>"Wait-" Superman began to say. He wanted to momentarily cease their hostilities in order to deal with the Gordanians' attack first but his change of heart had come a little too late.</p><p>The masked mercenary spread his feet in a wider stance and his legs bent slightly from the knees. Then, he slapped his hands together like in prayer and his fur-collared black cloak began to float and billow despite the absence of any wind, revealing the combat suit he was wearing underneath. A terrible aura started to ooze out of his body and a great feeling of danger assaulted Superman's sharp senses. But he was left with no room to react at all before he found himself losing his equilibrium and getting slammed against the ground.</p><p>He was not the only one. On a radius of 600 feet around the praying Naruto, all living beings fell flat on their face against the ground. Only a few moments later, the nearly one hundred Gordanians that had been flying in the air before were smashed against the ground too, cracking the streets with their bodies and splattering the surrounding cars and buildings with their blood. Fortunately, there were no civilians around as they had evacuated the entire district from the moment that Koriand'r had started to crazily blow up everything around her. But the ones present at the scene - the Gordanians, the Justice League and the 4 local heroes of Jump City were not as lucky.</p><p>"What is this?!" Flash said as he tried to push against the ground with his hands but he fell back with a thud that almost knocked him out cold. He was finding it hard to even breathe. An invisible force was pulling at his internal organs and his blood was churning. Hawkgirl was similarly flat against the rooftop of a building; her superior Thanagarian constitution made her having it easier than Flash but she could still not move even an inch from where she stood. As for Batman, he was on the brink of death, barely holding onto his consciousness.</p><p>It was gravity. With Naruto as the centre, in a circle of 600 feet in diameter, Earth's gravity was multiplied several times over. It was the peak of mastery that Naruto had reached in the Earth Release and the Six Paths Sage Mode. Every living being in that area was flat on their belly or back, struggling to cope against the force that threatened to end their lives. The Tamaranean Princess, Robin and Beast Boy had been shaken out of their genjutsu-induced sleep but they were similarly helpless, especially Robin who was in the same situation as his former mentor.</p><p>The only one able to raise up from the ground was Superman. His immense strength as a Kryptonian was clearly living up to its fame.</p><p>"If this goes on, everyone will die. We-, we were in the wrong. Please stop." Superman said, his breathing erratic.</p><p>The nearly 100 armed Gordanians that had flown down to Earth were all dead already, their smashed and bloodied corpses creating a macabre paysage. The cloaked girl, Raven, had encased herself in a sphere of pure darkness and was probably still fine as she sat on the ground, Beast Boy had turned himself into a tiny flea to decrease the effect of gravity on his body as much as possible and Hawkgirl was in no immediate danger either, just immobilized. But Flash and Cyborg were starting to have serious difficulties while Batman and Robin were on the verge of dying.</p><p>Though he was very annoyed at the Earthlings' nosiness, Naruto had never intended to kill them. That's why he had chosen to immobilize them instead of throwing any deadly techniques at them. Therefore, when he heard Superman's offering of peace, his hands that were stuck to each other in a prayer parted.</p><p>Like a miracle, the terrible pulling force stopped. Although the Justice League and the heroes of Jump City were now free to move again, nobody dared to resume their previous hostility. But their collective relief was almost palpable.</p><p>However, when they thought that it was finally over, a haze of red and gold light began to pour out of Naruto's body. From his legs to his waist and up to his chest before finally enveloping his head too, almost like a cocoon. Bathed in gold and crimson red light, he appeared like a miniature sun in the darkness of the night. (1)</p><p>⁂</p><p>The entire process took only 1 second but to the onlookers, it felt as though it was much longer. Then, the cocoon of light blasted outwards and a tremendous aura of power flooded the entire sky and not only. At that moment, regardless of what place on the planet they were, the magic-users highly attuned to the flow of magic sensed the disturbance.</p><p>Inside a high-class restaurant in London, UK, a blond man was having dinner with a very wealthy-looking man. He was in the process of promoting a "brand new sleeping pill" (self-created pills charmed to produce a magically-induced sleep) when he suddenly jumped up to his feet, almost flipping the table and greatly startling his dining partner and potential customer.</p><p>In a lone tower outside of Salem, in Massachusetts, a grizzled-haired man was having breakfast with his wife when he suddenly shivered and spilt the cup of coffee he had been drinking.</p><p>In Napoli, Italy, a beautiful illusionist botched a magic trick that she was performing on the stage when she momentarily lost her focus and instead of taking a rabbit out of her magic hat, she took out a snake, making the entire audience cry out in panic.</p><p>On the Island of Paradise, the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, was startled awake from her meditation and her devotion time to the gods were interrupted.</p><p>"Great Athena, protect her!" she prayed, her heart filled with worry at the thought of her daughter.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Enveloped in a mix of crimson red and golden chakra, his feet left the surface of the street as he started to slowly float. Behind his back, 10 pitch-black orbs came into existence and with their apparition, a heavy pressure descended. It was not a physical force or something that could be seen or explained with science. It was the coercion that a superior existence could exert on the beings on a lower evolutionary scale. While the metahumans present at the scene were not too drastically affected, the regular humans on several tens of miles around were overwhelmed by a feeling of fear.</p><p>Even before the Rabbit Goddess had thrown him into a dimensional portal, Naruto had been able to enter the Six Paths Sage Mode and combine it with his Tailed Beast Mode. However, after almost a century, his mastery over it grew to the point where it could rival that of his ancestor, the Sage of the Six Paths himself.</p><p>With a red and yellow flash, his body disappeared. An instant later, he was 3 miles high up in the air, above Jump City, right in front of a Galleon-class Gordanian ship. It was not the small type of ship that the Gordanian slavers used normally. It was much larger, almost half a mile long, with a crew numbering in the hundreds. It showed how much importance the princess of Tamaran held for the Psions (since the Gordanians were nothing more, nothing less than the Psion Monarchy's attack dogs).</p><p>In front of such an enormous space ship, Naruto looked like an ant. But the moment he appeared floating in the sky, the warship's tens of guns and cannons were trained on him. Even the largest particle-canon at the bow of the spaceship - a cannon capable of even blowing up smaller moons - started to glow and flicker, a sign of it being charged to fire.</p><p>A hail of laser beams was shot at him but he seemed as calm and collected as ever. With a wave of his hand, one of the Truth-Seeking Balls behind his back flew in front of him and took the form of an enormous black shield. The laser beams did not even make a sound of impact. At the contact with the black shield, they simply vanished. The Gordanians aboard the spaceship did not even have time to express their surprise because right after the first wave of fire, Naruto flew closer to the black shield and slapped it lightly with his palm. But that 'light' slap caused a shockwave so powerful that the sky was completely cleared of clouds in a radius of tens of miles around.</p><p>Similarly, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman who had been watching the unfolding events with a blank look on their faces were also blasted to thousands of feet away from the Gordanian ship's proximity. In fact, Naruto did not need to slap the shield that hard or to hit it at all. He could control it with a simple thought, with his mind. But he had done so in order to blow away the three members of the Justice League because he did not want for them to get killed too in the crossfire.</p><p>Green Lantern managed to stabilize himself in the air the first and he also caught his two teammates with his power ring's constructs of green light. The three of them turned their heads and looked back at the Gordanian ship just in time to see the large black shield smashing against it.</p><p>They had been expecting a very powerful explosion or at least another shockwave similar to the one from a few moments before. But there was none of that. The moment the black shield clashed against the Gordanian ship, it turned into a black sphere that encased the half a mile-long Galleon-class starship within. Then, without even making a sound, the enormous sphere that had encapsulated the Gordanian ship imploded. A warship capable of even taking over a planet was turned into nothingness, just like that! After that, the now tiny orb flew back next to the other 9 Truth-Seeking orbs floating at his back.</p><p>"Jesus Christ!"</p><p>"Great Hera!"</p><p>In front of a scene like that, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman could not help crying out the name of the gods they believed in. Martian Manhunter himself was mute, speechless.</p><p>Down below, on the ground, the rest of the Justice League and the 4 local heroes of Jump City were no less shocked either. Although it was night, Naruto's Six Paths Bijuu Mode glowing like a miniature sun and the ship being almost half a mile long made them see what had happened perfectly, even despite the distance. Even for Batman and Superman, two veterans in fighting all kinds of aliens, it was the first time they had seen something as shocking as that.</p><p>Until then, Batman had always thought that with enough preparation time, planning, and money, he could go against anyone. Naturally, that led to a great level of self-confidence and even a certain amount of pride being born in his heart. He, a mere human, with no superpowers, had managed to stand on equal grounds even against incredibly powerful beings such as Superman, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter. However, when he saw the enormous Gordanian ship being erased from existence without even leaving a scrap of metal behind, he was shaken.</p><p>
  <em>'What could I possibly do alone against a being like that? No, what could the Justice League do against someone like him?'</em>
</p><p>At the same time, Batman's mind also went to the business card that Naruto had given him half a year before. Back then, he had found it weird that someone that was wearing a fox-themed mask and had a nine-tailed fox companion would have such a strange alias - 'Caterpillar'.</p><p>But now he understood.</p><p>At a first glance, Naruto had looked like an easy-going guy and a money-grubber. A mercenary, fitting the stereotype. Ordinary and unassuming...like a Caterpillar. But just like Caterpillars transform into very beautiful butterflies once they come out of the cocoon and evolve, it was the same with Naruto when he revealed his true power.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Everyone watched with trepidation how the deity-like alien flew back on the ground. Though Superman tried to not show his inner emotions, a focused observer would notice how rigid his expression looked. It was even worse because Superman could feel that the alien's powers were of a magical nature, the bane of his physiology alongside kryptonite and red radiation.</p><p>Nonetheless, Naruto was not interested in antagonizing them or getting back at them for trying to make things hard for him. Though he loved to joke around and act like a filled with youthfulness man, his mind was still that of an old man. In his eyes, the Justice League were nothing but a group of children that tried to pick a fight against an adult and got their butts whooped. For him, it was enough if they learned their lesson and stayed put for a while. He had no further interest in quarrelling with them and he certainly no longer cared about preaching and force-feeding his philosophy of life to other people like when was a teenager.</p><p>The red and yellow energy seeped back into his body and the 10 Truth-Seeking Balls melted into his back, joining his chakra pool too. Without saying a word to the ones around him, he headed straight towards Koriand'r who was still rooted in her place despite having woken up earlier from the genjutsu he had placed on her.</p><p>"I've killed your captors. As I told you before, your parents hired me to rescue you." Naruto told her and the translating device did its job to change his words into the language spoken on Tamaran.</p><p>Koriand'r looked like she wanted to say something but besides the trembling of her lower lip, she could not move her mouth. She was terrified.</p><p>"Come with me. I hope you will behave and not throw any temper tantrums. For your own good."</p><p>A shaky nod was all the confirmation he needed before placing a hand on her shoulder and teleporting themselves back to his ship. Now, he did not need to physically restrain her anymore. The girl was too scared to go against his words.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"I felt your power all the way from the other side of the planet. What the hell did you do?" Kyuubi asked when Naruto flew back to Europe with his ship to pick him up and leave the planet.</p><p>In response to that, Naruto threw up a mouthful of coagulated purple-black blood in the toilet.</p><p>"Ugh, I hate this."</p><p>Half of his face was violet and there were patches of purple and black over his hands, forearms and chest too. It was the effect of drawing the polluted nature energy of the Earth when he had entered the Six Paths Sage Mode. He had drawn a rather large amount of natural energy to conjure the Truth-Seeking Orbs and use one of them to disintegrate that enormous Gordanian ship. What was happening currently was the reason why he always avoided using his Sage Mode unless it was necessary on the planets inhabited by technologically-advanced sentient beings. Those planets would be infected and polluted by the beings living on it. When he entered the Six Paths Sage Mode on such a planet it was as though he was drinking poison. Now, he was facing the consequences.</p><p>After he threw up a few more times, he took a quick shower and came back to the living quarters of his ship where Koriand'r was still waiting on the very sofa where he had left her an hour ago. She had not moved at all. But she did manage to regain some of her composure in that time frame. When she saw the masked Naruto entering the room, she asked:</p><p>"What are you going to do with me?"</p><p>Naruto sighed.</p><p>"Look, I told you two times already - your parents hired me to rescue you from the psions."</p><p>"You're lying! Just tell me the truth!" Koriand'r said, almost shouting. She looked very agitated.</p><p>"You're saving her life and that's how she shows her gratitude? Ungrateful little twerp!" Kyuubi growled and one of his tails elongated, about to slap the snot out her but Naruto put a hand on his head to stop him.</p><p>"It's alright, Kurama," Naruto said. "It's not that bad, I'm fine."</p><p>Clearly, Naruto was referring to the reason why Kyuubi was angry - the fact that he got seriously ill. When he looked at the poisoned visage of Naruto and then at the girl who had not even said a 'thank you', he wanted to beat her up good and teach her some manners.</p><p>Turning his attention back to Koriand'r, Naruto said:</p><p>"I am a man of my word. I do not lie. Not in this kind of important matters."</p><p>"How are you not?! My parents have been dead for years!" the girl shouted, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.</p><p>Naruto and Kyuubi looked at each other in doubt.</p><p>"Explain!" Kyuubi ordered.</p><p>"It all started when the Gordanians attacked our planet. My sister had sold our planet's defence plans to the enemy. Because of her betrayal, Tamaran was conquered. In order to preserve the peace, for the sake of all the people of Tamaran, I was offered as a tribute to the Gordanians, as a slave."</p><p>As she said that, Koriand'r's green eyes glowed with anger and hatred.</p><p>"After that, my sister staged a coup and took control of Tamaran. Her men had executed the entire royal family - both my parents and my brother. Only I was left alive, sold to the Psions who tortured and experimented on me for years."</p><p>Energy bolts started taking form around her hands and she looked like she was about to lose control of them in her rage but a large tail slapped her across the face so hard that she was thrown off the sofa. Her energy bolts disappeared back into her body before they could be fired.</p><p>"If you as much as damage one chair in this ship after all he went through to rescue your sorry ass, I'll eat you alive, bounty be damned. This is your one and only warning."</p><p>That threat would have come out as amusing had it been the previously tiny fox that made it but that was not the case. Instead of a tiny fox cub there stood an enormous nine-tailed fox now, a fierce demon that cast a shadow over the entire living room with its size.</p><p>Kyuubi had no lost love for humans of any kind - that's why his behaviour towards Wonder Woman had been strange in Naruto's eyes. Normally, this rough and violent attitude was what he showed to other people, not to mention how angry he was at the moment because Naruto had gotten himself hurt.</p><p>"Kurama! Get a hold of yourself. That's enough." Naruto said seriously.</p><p>Though still pissed, Kyuubi listened to his words and reverted to his regular form. Naruto took him in his arms and then placed him on his shoulder where Kyuubi liked to sit usually.</p><p>"Follow me to the control room," Naruto told the girl and she hurried to come after him. Kyuubi smacking her with his tail had reminded her that she was not in a situation where she could throw tantrums and that the man in front of her was strong enough to kill her in a heartbeat, unlike the Gordanians from whom she had managed to escape before.</p><p>After taking a seat in front of the computer, he called his information broker.</p><p>"Come on, pick up you dirty rat," Naruto said in annoyance after the 4th unanswered call.</p><p>"I have a bad feeling about this," Kyuubi said.</p><p>"I don't know, man, Rui Nak has never tried to screw with me. He's never lied to me about job-related things."</p><p>"But there are only two options: either the girl is lying about her parents being dead. Or that rat bastard is lying. And I sensed that this girl is speaking the truth."</p><p>Naruto shook his head.</p><p>"No, we can't take this as absolute. You know your Negative Emotion Sensing can be fooled sometimes. If she truly believes that she is speaking the truth, you will not detect any lies even if what she says is not right. It could very be that she was made to believe that her parents were killed. That sounds more likely if you think what a piece of shit her sister is and that Rui Nak has never given us a reason to doubt him."</p><p>But Kyuubi was holding his position firmly.</p><p>"Trust me on this, Naruto. There's something fishy going on."</p><p>Naruto looked at him in doubt but did not argue. Kyuubi did not say things like that often but when he did, his instincts often proved to be spot on. As he typed on the keyboard to set the coordinates for the next space-warp, towards Tamaran in the Vega System, he resolved himself to approach the rest of the mission with extra caution.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>AN:<br/>(1) It was early morning in Boston on the East Coast. It was still night/dark in Jump City, on the West Coast.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Demonic God</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"What in the world...? Did I put in the wrong coordinates?" Naruto muttered to himself when he saw the desolate scenery outside, through the pilot cabin's window.</p><p>It was a scene extremely similar to the one that he had seen half a year ago when he went to the Rao System at the request of Superman and saved the young Argonian girl, Kara Zor-El: countless asteroids littered the space where the planet Tamaran should have been.</p><p>"Computer, confirm our location," Naruto ordered.</p><p>At his request, the large screen of the computer showed a very detailed map of the Milky Way Galaxy, a map that proceeded to be zoomed in rapidly. It took just a few seconds for the map to be zoomed in until only a planetary system was displayed on the screen: the Vega System. On it, an inverted green triangle was blinking above the planet Tamaran. But when looking through the windows of the ship, Tamaran was nowhere to be seen. Countless chunks of rocks and a large amount of debris was all that was left of the previously flourishing planet.</p><p>Although Koriand'r did not understand the Almeracian language that Naruto used to interact with the AI of the ship, it did not take a genius to understand what was going on when she saw their location on the map of the Vega System and the mass of asteroids outside. Tears welled up in her eyes and she started crying bitterly.</p><p>From someone who had had everything, Koriand'r had lost everything.</p><p>Initially, a princess of the royal family and the next in line to become the ruler of her planet, she was sold out by her own parents, at a very frail age, for the sake of the greater good - for 'peace'. She became a slave and she even lost her innocence when one of the Gordanian jailers raped her. She had murdered that Gordanian in revenge later on but the damage done to her was obviously not repaired. Instead, things only continued to spiral downwards from there. After killing her jailors and attempting to escape, the Gordanians thought of her as too dangerous and sold her to their allies, the Psion Monarchy. In the following years, she had endured all kinds of torture and experiments at the hands of the Psions.</p><p>And now, even her homeworld had been destroyed. Koriand'r let herself down on her knees and sobbed in her hands.</p><p>Over the course of his long life, after witnessing the death of many worlds (including the apocalypse of his own) Naruto inadvertently became detached from the world around him. He would enjoy the moment and have fun but he always kept other people and places at an arm-length, never letting anyone in his heart except for his life-long friend, Kyuubi. However, at that moment, hearing the girl's anguished cries cracked his heart.</p><p>
  <em>"Do you understand pain a little now? If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them."</em>
</p><p>Even to this day, almost a century after his fateful battle against the leader of the Akatsuki, Uzumaki Nagato, Naruto could vividly remember every single moment of it, every single word of his former enemy. Nagato was the one person that had marked him the most, even more than his mentor, the Toad Sage. Because the older Naruto grew, the more he realized the naivete of Jiraiya's dream and the harsh truth in Pain's words.</p><p>Naruto lowered himself to Koriand'r's level and put his hand gently on her shoulder.</p><p>"I'm sorry for your loss."</p><p>Her situation hit very close to home for Naruto. He may have not had it as bad as Koriand'r - to be enslaved and raped by his captors - but, just like her, he had also been sacrificed by his own father for the sake of the village, for the greater good. Betrayed by their family for the sake of peace. And just like her, he had also lost his homeworld. He understood all too well her pain. And that was why his passive attitude cracked when faced with her cries.</p><p>It was just a small show of compassion on Naruto's side but for the crying Koriand'r, it was the drop the spilt the glass. She lunged at him and her arms wrapped around his back tightly as she started to cry out loud in his chest.</p><p>"I have nothing left... nothing..." Koriand'r said through her tears.</p><p>What could he say to comfort the young woman desperately crying in his arms? That "things have to get worse before they can get better"? Or that she's at the lowest point in her life and that "from now on, things can only go up"? In his mind, such cheap lip-service was disgusting. He chose to stay silent, only offering her a shoulder to cry on.</p><p>Naruto let out a drawn-out sigh of despondency.</p><p>
  <em>'In this dog-eat-dog world, being weak is almost like a sin. But even if you're powerful, you can only guarantee your own survival... For all my power, I could never protect everything. On the grand scale of the Universe, one man is nothing. In front of a reality-bender god, even I would be in danger... Against the all-powerful force of the Void, in front of the Universe's power, I am but a spec of dust.'</em>
</p><p>There were some groups and organisations like the Green Lantern Corps that tried to uphold peace and justice in the Universe but they were only minimally successful and their death toll was very high. Despite their efforts, intergalactic wars still raged on, greedy dictators took over planets and enslaved their inhabitants and mad conquerors destroyed everything in their path. And that was only on a large scale, to say nothing about the countless conflicts that took place every day on every planet: armed conflicts, killings, kidnappings, physical and sexual abuse, torturing, human trafficking.</p><p>
  <em>'I've fought against evil for decades, even after coming into this new world. But no matter what I did, it always came back. No matter how much I stepped on it, the darkness crawled back, like a cockroach.'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'Yin and Yang, evil and good, darkness and light. Supposedly, for life to exist, there has to be a balance between these two opposing sides. But where is the light when I can see only darkness? Who is the light and what does it do to stop the ever-growing darkness? Where are all the benevolent gods that so many people worship and pray to?'</em>
</p><p>Naruto had no wild thoughts about him bearing the role of the light. He was but a tired old man...a lone man. He had been the so-called child of the prophecy but he had still failed at protecting his own homeworld. If he could not protect his loved ones and his home, he had no illusions about being able to protect the Universe at large. His power may have grown by a lot but just like his powers, the strength of the enemy had increased just as much if not more.</p><p>
  <em>'Fighting against the darkness is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. Darkness is ever-evolving, ever-spreading and indestructible.'</em>
</p><p>That was the conclusion that he had reached after more than 100 years of life. That the laws of the Universe made it so there would always be darkness. Darkness would never be destroyed for as long as sentient living beings existed. And this thought filled him with helplessness. Over the years, it made him lose much of the drive that he used to have in his early teen years when he wanted to protect every innocent being, regardless of whether they were friends or strangers. The despair of knowing that no matter what he did, darkness would never be extinguished... it slowly made him become detached from the world around him.</p><p>But there were moments like the present one when he came in contact with people whose pain he could relate to. People like Superman, people like Koriand'r. Those moments always shook his cold heart and perturbed his inner peace and calm.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"What are you going to do now, Naruto?" Kyuubi asked quietly.</p><p>After taking the sleeping Tamaranean princess to one of the rooms in the ship's living quarters, man and fox were now back in the control room, alone.</p><p>"I'm going to turn in Vandal Savage to the Psions first."</p><p>"You do realize that this bounty was most likely a highly-elaborated trap from the beginning, right?" Kyuubi asked again.</p><p>"Oh, I am betting on that," Naruto said darkly.</p><p>From the moment that he saw that Tamaran was destroyed, he realized that Kyuubi's hunch about Rui Nak betraying them was right all along. As one of the top information brokers in the Milky Way galaxy, there was no way that Rui Nak did not know that Koriand's parents were dead or that Tamaran had been destroyed.</p><p>"That rat betrayed us," Kyuubi said. "Most likely, he was paid by the Psions to deliver us to him. I can totally see those crazed scientists wanting to dissect you and me to see what makes us tick and what gives us our power. And that scum of a rat even sold his wife and kids for money, to say nothing of his willingness to sell you."</p><p>Naruto nodded his head and added:</p><p>"The bounty to save the princess of Tamaran was probably just to distract us and give more of a reason and make sure we entered one of the Psions' bases." Cold laughter came from him as he said: "But I will play their game. Hehe."</p><p>At his different-than-usual demeanour, Kyuubi jumped off Naruto's shoulder and then stood in front of him. He looked him in the eye and said meaningfully:</p><p>"Are we going all out?"</p><p>Naruto chuckled softly.</p><p>"You know me so well, Kurama."</p><p>As they were speaking, over a dozen space-warp tunnels appeared within 200 miles of their ship. The radar of the ship went crazy and alarms started blaring as multiple hostile targets appeared within its scope. From those space-warp tunnels, almost 40 frigate-class and even 8 galleon-class warships came out.</p><p>"I hope whatever the Psions had bribed the rat with was worth trading his life for. Because I'll rip him to shreds after I am done here." Naruto growled.</p><p>It was not his normal voice, it was deeper and it sounded demonic. The nails of his fingers had turned into claws and if it had not been for his masking jutsu that made his hair look golden-yellow, it could have been seen that his hair had become blood red, compared to the regular strawberry-blonde from before. Under his mask, his canines grew into fangs as well and his already thick whisker-like marks became darker and deeper.</p><p>A beeping sound was being made by the computer, showing an incoming transmission but a clawed finger pressed on a key to reject it. He did not need to hear what the incoming fleet of warships had to say to know their intentions - on the large screen of his computer, he could see the footage recorded by the AI: the ships that had appeared on their radar carried the emblems of the Psion Monarchy and the Gordanian Empire.</p><p>"They think they can trap and capture us like a beast? Come, Kurama. It's time we reminded the world what happens after provoking a slumbering beast."</p><p>The fox met the man's fist in a fist-bump and, as the two of them looked at each other, blood-thirsty grins crept on their faces. In the next moment, their silhouettes teleported out of the ship.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Hundreds of ships were firing laser beams at an enormous monstrosity. A fission-type missile exploded against the torso of the beast and an enormous mushroom-like cloud of fire rose for tens of miles into the sky, even puncturing the stratosphere of the planet. A roar of pain came from the beast as a patch of its chest was burnt off.</p><p>"This isn't right! This wasn't in our calculations! Our data was wrong!" a frail-looking green lizard-man yelled hysterically.</p><p>They had not known that the tiny "pet" of the mercenary they wanted to capture would transform into a world-destroying behemoth.</p><p>That fission-type missile was the strongest weapon of mass destruction they could use without endangering the very core of the planet their race was living on. But that weapon that could lay waste to an entire nation had only scraped some skin off the beast's chest.</p><p>The one that looked like the commander of the lizard-men screamed:</p><p>"Everyone, evacuate the planet! Prepare the star-destroyers and blow up everything to dust! Blow them all up along with the planet!"</p><p>His adjutants could not help yelling out in disbelief:</p><p>"But sir! Our home and everything we've worked so hard for will-"</p><p>The adjutant, however, did not finish speaking when the sky suddenly seemed to turn black. His words died out in his throat when an enormous sphere of purple-black energy cast a shadow over the capital city of the planet.</p><p>
  <strong>*<em>BOOM</em>*</strong>
</p><p>A cataclysmic explosion boomed. A white light blinded every living being in range and the shockwave it generated deafened everyone a second later. The energy shield that should have been capable of defending even against a shot from a star-destroying particle cannon was obliterated.</p><p>Twenty galleon-type warships equipped with star-destroying cannons flew in front of the enormous beast. But despite the destructive might of their warships, everyone on board trembled at the sight of the colossal beast standing ahead of them. They have never seen anything as monstrous as that before.</p><p>Blood-red fur, over 1500 feet in height and over 2500 feet in length. At its back, 9 enormous tails created tornados just with simple twitches. It was a gargantuan 9-tailed demon fox.</p><p>"Kurama! Sea of Fire!" Naruto shouted.</p><p>He was on top of the enormous fox's head but he was so small that he could not be seen from outside. The fur of the beast's head was even taller than him. He was no bigger than a fly was on a regular fox. He sat on his knees, with both hands pressed down on the head of Kyuubi. A massive amount of chakra was being passed on from him to the demon below through his hands.</p><p>The titanic demon roared. A conic breath of fire covered the entire sky. Like the furious waves of an ocean, the stream of fire obliterated everything in its path. The several miles-long star-destroying warships were reduced to liquid metal in mere seconds. Flames hotter than the sun melted everything.</p><p>It was hell. And in the middle of that hell, demonic laughter shook the skies.</p><p>
  <strong>"Wahaha! Die! Die!"</strong>
</p><p>Kyuubi revelled in the feeling of power, in the slaughter. Power like he had never wielded back in the Elemental Nations. A power not any lower than that of the Ten Tailed Beast, a God.</p><p>He did not have many opportunities to let loose like that. When Naruto had unsealed him from his body, he was in his 40s. It took Naruto nearly 3 decades of studying the art of Fuinjutsu before he became proficient and confident enough to undo the seal without killing himself in the process.</p><p>But after 40 years spent locked by the Shinigami's seal, much of Kyuubi's chakra had seeped into Naruto, fusing with him - that was why Naruto's whisker marks were so thick and dark now by default and that was also why his golden blonde hair had become a strawberry-blond, almost red. Before unsealing Kyuubi, man and bijuu had been very close to the point where they would completely fuse into one single entity.</p><p>When Naruto finally unsealed him, the bijuu lost a part of himself in the process - in the present, Kyuubi could not regenerate his chakra like before, simply by drawing it in from the outside world. That's why he had become a glutton that would eat 24/7. He converted the physical energy from anything he ate into chakra. That was also why he took on the appearance of a tiny fox cub most of the time: to preserve his energy.</p><p>But when Kyuubi actually let loose and put to use all the chakra that he had accumulated over many years, this was the result: a might far surpassing the original level of power given to him by his creator, Rikudo Sennin. Unlike before, there was no real limit to how much chakra he could store. Theoretically, with enough time and chakra, he could become invincible. He was no longer just a demonic fox. In the present, Kyuubi was like a god, a demonic fox god.</p><p>"Prepare one final attack: destroy their planet," Naruto said.</p><p>His ruthless words would have shocked his younger self back in the Elemental Nations. But Naruto was no stranger to the atrocities that this race of degenerates had committed over their millions of years of existence. There was not a single innocent among them. When one wants to cut the weeds, they have to pull them from their roots. Complete annihilation.</p><p>Kyuubi's booming evil laughter subsided. He had never fully lost himself in his lust for carnage and slaughter. He had not forgotten even for a second that his current power was possible only because of the chakra that Naruto was pouring into him, a chakra that Naruto absorbed from Nature, on a planet even more polluted and infected than the Earth.</p><p><strong>"Are you sure, Naruto?"</strong> Kyuubi asked worriedly.</p><p>"Just do it!" Naruto said grimly. "I'm only acting as a conductor, not as the engine - I'm just pouring chakra into you instead of using it myself. The damage this infected natural energy does to me is not as bad as if I was the one to use it and cast jutsus."</p><p>Despite his words of reassurance, right at that moment, his mask cracked and dispersed into particles of light. His perfect chakra control was starting to slip up. His red hair came into view now that the mask no longer disguised it and the appearance of his face too. He was horrible to look at.</p><p>Had Kyuubi been able to see how Naruto looked at that moment, he would have stopped his rampage in a heartbeat: purple-black blood was flowing from a corner of his mouth, most of the skin on his face was a mixture of dark violet and black and he lost the sight in one of his eyes after half of his face had been petrified. It was a clear sign of nature-energy poisoning. If he did not stop drawing on nature's energy very soon, at this rate, his entire body would turn into stone, becoming a statue just like the many other people before him who had lost control of their senjutsu.</p><p>Kyuubi did not have a wishy-washy nature. He was aware of the dangers Naruto faced the longer he kept using this infected natural energy. So he did not hesitate. Cupping his fists together, he slammed them against the ground with all the strength that his gigantic body was capable of. A huge crack appeared in the ground, splitting the crust of the planet open for dozens of miles. Then, opening his enormous mouth wide-open, the largest bijuudama Kyuubi had ever cast slowly took form in front of him. It was even larger than his half a mile long body. At last, he fired it into the huge crack that he had made in the crust of the planet.</p><p>Despite how violent and powerful the following explosion was, it was not enough to destroy an entire planet by itself...but the chain of reactions that it produced made up for it. The aftershocks and the rest of the berserk chakra resulted from the tailed beast bomb's explosion reached the very core of the planet. Only a few seconds later, terrible earthquakes shook the entire surface of the planet and volcanos started showing signs of erupting very soon, from everywhere. It was the end of the world. After a few hours, the planet was going to explode from within.</p><p>"Make yourself tiny, Kurama. Quickly." Naruto said with difficulty because the petrifying process was advancing further than before and even started to turn to stone his mouth too.</p><p>The over 1500 feet tall and over 2500 feet long demonic fox god decreased in size at a very fast speed until it became no larger than a horse. Kyuubi had realized that Naruto was in a critical condition. He made himself small enough for Naruto to be able to teleport them both but also big enough for him to carry his wounded friend.</p><p>In a flash of yellow and red light, the two of them appeared at 4 thousand miles away, in the exosphere of the planet, aboard their invisible ship.</p><p>"Naruto, you-"</p><p>The fox could not continue speaking. Except for his right eye, all of Naruto's face had turned into stone along with his left hand and leg. He was petrified in a kneeling position, bent over - the position he had had while pouring his chakra into Kyuubi.</p><p>Naruto weakly raised his still working hand and put it on Kyuubi's chest. His index finger drew invisible lines on his chest like he was writing.</p><p>"Don't worry... I'll be ok...?" Kyuubi read by imagining what the lines Naruto drew with his finger would be in kanji.</p><p>Naruto made a weak thumbs-up gesture and then proceeded to write again on the fox's chest.</p><p>"Call Lobo... return favour... rat bastard... warp ship... Earth."</p><p>Naruto once again made a thumbs-up gesture to show that Kyuubi got it right. After that, his only remaining eye closed. He lost his consciousness.</p><p>⁂</p><p>While Naruto was unconscious, on the brink of death, and Kyuubi was fumbling with the computer of the ship to activate the space-warp, the rest of the Universe was in an uproar.</p><p>The two of them had no idea about how far-reaching were the consequences of their outrageous display of power and ruthless violence. They were in every discussion of the upper echelons of all the powerful forces of the Galaxy and not only. The well-informed and powerful organisations in the entire known Universe were shocked because the Psions were one of the oldest races of the Universe, almost as old as the Guardians of the Green Lantern Corps who had created them. No self-respecting interstellar power could claim that they had not heard of the Psions and their cruel dominion over the lawless Vega System. However, such an old, powerful, and technologically-advanced race had been massacred to the last individual in the span of a day.</p><p>In the Vega System, the Gordanian Empire's ruling body was in a panic. Their allies and masters, the Psions, possessed far superior technology and means of destruction and/or defence. But they had been eradicated in only one day! Hundreds of thousands of Gordanians evacuated Karna planet in the following weeks, running for their lives.</p><p>In contrast to the Gordanians, billions of other people in the Vega System were celebrating the day of liberation. The Psions who had taken over the entire system were no more. Countless people came out in the streets and celebrated together, regardless of race or nationality when the news of Psions' massacre came out.</p><p>On Thanagar, the members of the Ruling Council of the Thanagrians were having difficult to contain smiles on their faces. For generations, they had been at war against the Gordanians and, as of late, they were even starting to get pushed back by the flying lizard-men. Although the Gordanians had not been destroyed along with the Psions, the Thanagrians were very happy with the outcome. Without the Psions' technology to support them from the back, the Gordanian Empire's defeat was only a matter of time.</p><p>On Earth, John Stewart had a look of disbelief on his face when Salaak, the administrator of the Green Lantern Corps sent him (and the rest of the Green Lanterns too) a shocking report:</p><p>
  <em>"The Psions of the Vega System have been massacred. An intergalactic mercenary, Uzumaki Naruto, also known as 'Caterpillar' and his companion, Kyuubi, a demon, have destroyed the Psions' planet and the 6 moons that they had colonized. The Guardians have classified the two of them as Universal-level threats. All Green Lanterns in possession of more information about these two subjects are to report to Oa immediately."</em>
</p><p>On New Genesis and Apokolips, Highfather and Darkseid, the rulers of the two factions of the New Gods were both frowning, though because of different reasons.</p><p>The Vega System was a place that even Darkseid had not attempted to conquer until then because he recognized the threat that the Psions' technology posed. Darkseid did not like the sudden apparition of such a wild and violent dark horse - one that annihilated an entire race in one day. New Genesis and the Justice League were annoying enough as it was; he did not like the thought of such a dangerous variable popping up in his plans of world domination.</p><p>As for Highfather, he went into a deep mediation, trying to make contact with the Source. He was worried about such a powerful character being evil. His adopted son, Orion, the most valiant warrior of the gods from New Genesis was getting ready to leave their world and make contact with the dangerous mercenary and his beast, to ascertain their intentions and thoughts.</p><p>On the planet Almerac, a beautiful red-haired woman shot up from her throne, her face betraying the shock she was feeling. She was Maxima, the Queen of Almerac. A series of contrasting emotions flashed in her eyes: at first anger, then infatuation, and then anger again. She had met the mercenary and his fox a few years before. Infatuated with how powerful he was, she had tried to kidnap him and make him her husband by force. But not only that he rejected her, he even stole one of their most advanced stealth-oriented warships before escaping from the planet. She had not heard anything about him for years but when she finally heard some news about him again, it was about him annihilating a race as powerful as the Psions... Her infatuation levels skyrocketed. Flushed with excitement and desire and with her previous anger nearly forgotten, she immediately ordered her subordinates to search for more information about his whereabouts. She was definitely going to hunt him down and make him her husband.</p><p>Lastly, a Yellow Power Ring took flight from Qward, in the Anti-Matter universe. Its destination was precise: the Earth, in the Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy. Target: Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Demonic Fox God.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I've tried using foreshadowing as a writing technique. I said a few chapters ago about Rui Nak that he gambled his wife and kids for money and then Starfire told Naruto that her parents were dead. Finally, we arrived at the point where it becomes clear that Rui Nak had betrayed and sold out Naruto. Not sure if my foreshadowing technique was on point lol. I'm looking forward to your reviews, be they good or bad. Constructive criticism is welcome. Until next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Origins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The reactions towards Naruto's "limiter" were mixed. I'm not upset with that, I was expecting it. I mean I can see why it would be annoying for some but on the other hand, I did not want to make Naruto ridiculously OP either. There have to be some consequences for him using a power belonging to the realm of the gods. I want him to be powerful, not invincible. With the DC characters' power levels being restricted mostly to the ones they have in the animated movies/series, if Naruto did not have a limiter to his power, he would just stomp everything. But it goes the other way around too: if Superman or Darkseid or Wonder Woman were as powerful as they were in the comics where they could destroy gods and planets with a fart, Naruto would similarly get stomped.</p><p>So there has to be a balance. At least in my opinion. Furthermore, I think this limiter makes sense. As I have explained to someone in a pm, when Naruto draws in natural energy, it's like he's drinking from a well. I think it makes sense for him to become ill if the water in the well is poisoned.</p><p>Enjoy the new chapter!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Yes, a burrito with extra cheese. Yes, the top floor. The name is Diana Prince."</p><p>Placing her smartphone on the coffee table in her spacious living room, Wonder Woman focused on drying off her wet hair with a head towel. She had just come out of the shower, proof of that also being that there was only a white towel wrapped around her torso.</p><p>A few minutes later, the doorbell rang and she left her head towel on the backrest of the sofa as she sat up and went to open the door.</p><p>"Good evening, ma'am. Here's your-"</p><p>The delivery boy's words died in his throat 2 seconds after that door opened.</p><p>"Good evening. Is there a problem?" Wonder Woman asked, completely oblivious.</p><p>"N-No," he said, his face quickly becoming as red as an apple.</p><p>Long black hair, wet, barely out of the shower, striking blue eyes, defined cheekbones, full lips and a body even a model would be envious of - a body wrapped in only a white towel that strained to contain her voluptuous breasts and left her soft shoulders and strong yet still feminine thighs and legs bare. In truth, the costume she wore on a daily basis in public while fighting crime did not cover much more than the bath towel but there was a stark difference in the atmosphere surrounding her at that time and in the present.</p><p>Till the very end of the transaction, the delivery boy fumbled very flusteredly. He almost dropped the package with food when he handed it to her and, after getting her money, he bolted away, forgetting to give her the change. But he turned around after a few seconds, his face even redder than before, boiling, upon realizing his mistake.</p><p>Wonder Woman giggled softly.</p><p>"It's alright, you can keep the change. Thank you and have a nice evening!" she said with a smile and waved in good-bye.</p><p>She may have been oblivious in the first few seconds but Wonder Woman was not stupid. She realized the reason for the boy's embarrassment. After starting to live as Diana Prince among regular people, she began to understand how big was the effect of her physical appearance on most men.</p><p>
  <em>'What I don't get is why almost everyone acts like that when I'm Diana Prince but nobody shows any reaction in front of Wonder Woman...'</em>
</p><p>Scenes like the previous one when men became "star struck" were not really that common (hence her amusement) but it was a fact that dozens of men had tried to hit on Diana Prince during the past few months since she adopted this civilian identity yet hardly anyone seemed to like Wonder Woman as a woman.</p><p>
  <em>'Maybe it's because Wonder Woman looks like an untouchable being, powerful and dangerous, while Diana Prince is the normal but attractive and rich human girl?' </em>
</p><p>What Wonder Woman was completely unaware of was that her hero persona was way, way more popular with men (and not only) than her civilian identity. It was just that nobody would dare to express their honest thoughts in front of someone who could bend steel with her bare hand and throw cars around like they were pebbles. If she had browsed the internet for even as little as 2 minutes, typing 'Wonder Woman' in the search engine, she would have seen how different the situation was. But she had never done that. She did not know about the hundreds of blogs dedicated to worshipping Wonder Woman or about the existence of websites like rule34...</p><p>With these idle thoughts, Wonder Woman came back to the living room and, after plopping herself down on the sofa, she grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Then, she opened the paper bag and grabbed the burrito from it. She took a huge, very unladylike bite from her burrito and an expression of bliss appeared on her face.</p><p>
  <em>"...what looked like an enormous ship of alien invaders appeared above Jump City-"</em>
</p><p>Wonder Woman put her burrito down for a moment with a dissatisfied expression and changed the channel.</p><p>
  <em>"Everyone is asking the same question: who is the newly-emerged hero?"</em>
</p><p>The princess' expression darkened and she changed the channel once more.</p><p><em>"The Justice League has yet to release a statement in regards to the previous incident so we don't know what exactly had transpired-" </em>the host of the show on tv said but one of his partners interrupted him:</p><p>
  <em>"Nonsense! It's as clear as day that he's a hero. Everyone saw and heard that hologram of the spaceship's commander. Those alien freaks would have destroyed the entire city if they hadn't found their allegedly dangerous prisoner. This new hero saved millions of people that night in Jump City and with no collateral damage at that! If that ain't what being a hero means then I don't know what is."</em>
</p><p>Her face now scrunched up in annoyance, Wonder Woman changed the channel again. It was a music channel this time. A large group of women dressed in a bikini and other types of promiscuous outfits were dancing on the beach while two men were singing:</p><p><em>"Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks</em><br/>
Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks<br/>
Lick on these nuts and suck the dick" (1)</p><p>Suddenly, the sound of a crash was heard when the remote control was slammed into the large flat screen of the tv, cracking it beyond recognition. A small vein was pulsating on the temple of Wonder Woman.</p><p>"Men! All men are the same!" she said in anger.</p><p>But she closed her eyes and breathed out in an attempt to regain her composure.</p><p><em>'No, there are good people among men too.' </em>She conceded in her mind once she calmed herself down a little.</p><p>It had been almost one year since she had come to "The Man's World" and she had seen in her fellow members of the Justice League that men were not all that bad. At least not all were as bad as she had been taught to believe. There were also brave, honest, noble and self-sacrificing characters among them.</p><p>
  <em>'</em>
  <em>But they are a minority. The average men out there...' </em>
</p><p>She let out a long sigh and massaged her temples with her hands. Since the Justice League's clash against the alien mercenary in Jump City and the Gordanian Ship's following destruction, the Earth had been thrown into an uproar. Her level of stress and her worries were off the charts.</p><p>Videos of the incident in Jump City spread on the internet like a wildfire. The videos did not contain scenes of Naruto's clash against the Justice League because all the civilians evacuated the area after Koriand'r went on a rampage but they all contained the scene of a man glowing in yellow and red light, almost like an angel, annihilating the enormous half a mile-long alien spaceship. In the general population's eyes, he was a newly emerged hero. They had no idea that he had fought against the Justice League at first.</p><p>That said, the entire Justice League was very rattled by the incident. Batman hid in his Batcave and has not spoken to anyone ever since, John Stewart was summoned to Green Lantern Corps' HQ in an urgent fashion and Wonder Woman herself just stayed at home all day, in her apartment, eating junk food and hiding from the crazed reporters. The rest of the Justice League did the same too but after seeing the huge disparity of power between them and the alien, Wonder Woman, in particular, was almost starting to question her abilities. Of what use had it been that she had trained for thousands of years as an Amazon when someone could just obliterate everything in their path with a snap of their fingers?</p><p>But she was stopped from continuing that line of thought when the doorbell rang again.</p><p>"Who could it be at this hour?"</p><p>It was already past 10 pm; it was night. Furthermore, she had no real friends or social life outside the Justice League and if they wanted to contact her, Martian Manhunter would have done it through their comms or even telepathy. There was no need to come all the way to her apartment. But when she looked through the door's peephole, a startled cry came out of her mouth:</p><p>"Mother?!"</p><p>⁂</p><p>Long blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing a white robe and a golden tiara on her head - it was none other than Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons and Wonder Woman's mother.</p><p>"We haven't seen each other in so long. Don't I get a hug from my daughter?" Hippolyta said.</p><p>Wonder Woman embraced her mother tightly and she took her hands in hers after she broke the hug.</p><p>"What brings you here?"</p><p>"Does a mother need a reason to visit her child?" Hippolyta asked teasingly.</p><p>"You've never visited me before and I..." Wonder Woman trailed off.</p><p>For a little while, mother and daughter became silent. Due to their laws, as the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta had had to exile her own daughter even despite the fact that she had broken those laws for the sake of saving their lives. Because of that, Wonder Woman could not visit her mother and her fellow Amazon sisters even if she wanted.</p><p>"Yesterday night, while I was in meditation, I sensed an incredible magic power. It was like the power of a god. I've come to the Man's World because I was worried about you."</p><p>"We met a very powerful foe. The strongest we've ever faced. He defeated the entire Justice League effortlessly. We could not do anything against him. If he had been evil, I don't know how many of us would have been alive now."</p><p>Hearing Diana's words, Hippolyta took her in her arms and embraced her again.</p><p>"My little stars and sun!" she said lovingly.</p><p>"Mother." Diana also said and hugged her back.</p><p>They were warriors, born for battle and they were both several thousand years old... but when it was just the two of them, Diana and Hippolyta were not Wonder Woman and the Queen of the Amazons but just a daughter and a mother that loved each other dearly.</p><p>"It's time I told you the truth, something I've hidden from you since forever," Hippolyta said and then she took out a pendant from her neck.</p><p>An incantation spoken in an Ancient Greek language came out of her mouth and the pendant started glowing with dark blue light, coating the entire living room with its colour.</p><p>"This is a very powerful spell, one that was cast upon this medallion by your father himself. For a short while, no-one will be able to see or hear what is happening in this room."</p><p>"My father?" Diana asked in a strange voice. "What do you mean? You said you sculpted me from clay and the Gods of Olympus themselves blessed me with life and their powers."</p><p>"Oh, the Gods did bless you with their powers after you were born. But they did not give you life. I gave you life...together with your father."</p><p>"This-...!"</p><p>Wonder Woman was at a loss, unable to find her words. She was almost 3000 years old. For three millennia, she believed that she had been made from clay - that was also why her devotion to the gods was so intense. Because she believed that everything she was, was because of the Gods. But now, her mother suddenly told her that that had been a lie from the beginning.</p><p>"Why did you lie to me? All this time, I-" Diana said in agitation.</p><p>"I did it to protect you. To protect you from those that would have wanted to kill you if they had known about your true origins."</p><p>"Who would have wanted to kill me? Who would have even been able to? The Amazons are under the protection of the Gods!" Diana said.</p><p>"You and I both saw how much protection the Gods gave us when Faust had turned everyone to stone. The Gods... they do not care about the Amazons that way. We... are expendable. Just tools that they can use as they see fit. If we broke, they would just create another set of tools to replace us. In front of the Gods, mortals mean nothing."</p><p>"Mother!" Wonder Woman shouted scandalized.</p><p>What Hippolyta had just said could very well be considered as blasphemy against the Gods! It was the first time that Wonder Woman had ever seen her mother speak like that about their gods and wearing that expression of bitterness on her face.</p><p>"You've ever wondered why the Amazons were punished to guard the Gates of Tartarus for eternity?" Hippolyta asked.</p><p>"Was it not because you aided Hades and the Titans in their battle against the Gods of Olympus?" Diana replied.</p><p>"But why would Hades, Zeus' brother try to plot against him by siding with the Titans? And why would we, the Amazons, support Hades in his rebellion? Do you really think I was so blindly in love with Hades that I just went along with whatever he wanted without questioning the fate of my people?" Hippolyta continued to ask.</p><p>Seeing her daughter falling silent, she continued:</p><p>"One day, Hades came home while I was bathing and he joined me in."</p><p>"Mother!" Diana cried out, her cheeks instantly turning rosy in embarrassment. She did not want to hear any details about her mother's sex life. But Hippolyta continued unbothered by her daughter's protests:</p><p>"Like any other couple, we started to make love. But I noticed that the way he was kissing me was different from before. Hades was a gentle lover, very caring and conscious of my needs. But that day, he was acting strangely. Rougher, more dominant, more selfish. I did not like it... However, by the time I realized that something was terribly wrong, it was too late. He had already spilt his seed inside of me. Him being such a quickshot and then teleporting away immediately after that further cemented my suspicions: that man had not been Hades. It had been someone else."</p><p>"Don't tell me!" Diana muttered with her hands covering her mouth in disbelief. It was not hard for her to guess what had actually happened.</p><p>"It had been Zeus all along. You know very well the history and how many women he had raped before. In my case, he had not dared to do it openly. He had disguised himself as Hades, who was my lover at that time. Naturally, I did not hide what happened from Hades. You can imagine his and my rage at Zeus. But we could not do anything against him. He is the king of Gods for a reason. No-one could ever defeat him - except for goddess Athena maybe, one day."</p><p>"Coincidentally, around at that time, the Titans waged war against Olympus. Hades jumped at the chance to get his revenge against Zeus. Though I hated Zeus too for what he did to me, I was reluctant to join him. As the leader of my people, I did not want the Amazons to be embroiled in a war of the gods. But he guilt-tripped me into accepting it, accusing me of colluding with Zeus behind his back. Zeus forcing himself on me that day...it had changed him. He became more taciturn, quick to anger, always ready to explode. Hades became very different from the man I had once fallen in love with."</p><p>"As for the rest, it is as you know it: the titans lost the war and Hades was exiled to Tartarus while the Amazons were punished to guard its gates for eternity for having sided with him."</p><p>A poignant silence followed.</p><p>"I assume Hera would have wanted to kill me if she had known that Zeus cheated on her again?" Diana asked.</p><p>"Yes," Hippolyta answered. "But if Zeus has one quality that is that he cares about his children. Together with Great Athena, they made a plan. They gave me an enchanted necklace that hid my pregnancy and they also told me to sculpt a baby out of clay. When it was time for you to be born, they pretended to give life to that form of clay."</p><p>"Knowing that, as the daughter of Zeus, your strength would far exceed that of your fellow Amazons, Great Athena sealed your powers. To remove any possibility of Hera becoming suspicious even of your sealed strength, goddess Athena organised a birthday party for the newborn you, a party where she invited the rest of the gods to bless you."</p><p>"Goddess Athena blessed you with her wisdom."</p><p>"Goddess Demeter blessed you with her strength."</p><p>"Goddess Aphrodite blessed you with her beauty."</p><p>"God Hermes blessed you with his ability of flight and speed."</p><p>"Goddess Artemis blessed you to have unity with nature and wild beasts and affinity to fire."</p><p>"Goddess Hestia blessed you with the power to discern the truth."</p><p>"...and now, the truth shall set you free."</p><p>"You are Diana, the Princess of the Amazons, the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and the King of Gods, Zeus!"</p><p>The sound of chains being snapped was heard and an aura of power and nobility burst out from Wonder Woman's body. Had it not been for the powerful spell coming off from the medallion that Zeus had enchanted, just that release of aura would have blasted the top floor of the building to dust.</p><p>"The spell will not hold on for too long, Diana!" Hippolyta said urgently. "Where are your bracelets? Put them on immediately!"</p><p>Though extremely bewildered by her mother's words and the massive changes she could feel taking place in her body, Diana automatically listened to her mother's words and tried to run to her bedroom where she had left her uniform.</p><p>"Wait, don't move away from this spell's range! Just tell me where they are and I'll get them for you!"</p><p>Not long after that, Hippolyta returned with the Bracelets of Submission and gave them to her daughter. After she put them around her wrists, Hippolyta said:</p><p>"Unless it's a matter of life and death like it was two days ago, never take these off. They will continue to suppress and hide your true nature and powers as long as you wear them. Never tell of your identity to anyone, unless you don't have a choice. The moment you take them off, the Gods will take notice of you and Hera will learn of your identity as well. An angry and jealous Hera is no less dangerous than her enraged husband."</p><p>Looking at Diana who was still silent and had a lost look in her eyes, Hippolyta took her once again in her arms and hugged her to her chest.</p><p>"I'm sorry I had to hide this from you for so long. If I hadn't been afraid I could lose you, I would have never told you the truth. I never cared about how powerful you could be while you were at my side. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. To be safe and to feel loved."</p><p>Diana could feel her mother's tears wetting the crook of her neck. She had never seen Hippolyta cry, she had never seen her as vulnerable as that before.</p><p>Hippolyta broke the hug and she raised her hands to cup her daughter's cheeks, making it so their blue eyes locked on each other.</p><p>"Even though Zeus forced himself on me, I never regretted giving you birth, Diana. I swear this on the River Styx."</p><p>"You are my little stars and sun. You are the joy of my life, my beloved daughter. Never think otherwise!"</p><p>Hearing her mother's pleading and filled with love voice and seeing her tears made Diana's eyes start swimming in tears too. She leaned into her mother's touch and hugged her tightly once more. Though her heart had been shaken by these revelations, the love and respect she had for her mother only increased after learning the truth.</p><p>That night, Hippolyta did not return to the Island of Paradise. That night, Wonder Woman, a 3000 years old woman, a valiant and tough warrior, slept like a vulnerable little girl, curled up in her mother's embrace. In contrast, Hippolyta stayed awake for a long time, watching her daughter sleep. A gentle expression was on her face as she softly caressed Diana's head.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's a story similar to the one in canon but with my own little twist on it. I think it's weird how they always did Hades dirty in most animations when, if you look at Greek Mythology, Hades is actually one of the more decent gods out of the entire Pantheon. He is not completely good but he is okay-ish when compared to how degenerated others were. He also joined hands with Zeus and Poseidon against the Titans. But in the animated JL series, he betrayed Zeus for no reason. We have no explanation.</p><p>I combined the two versions of Wonder Woman's origins with a tiny bit of mythology and the JL series' storyline. I think Hades' betrayal of Olympus makes a bit more sense this way. But do feel free to let me know what you think about it in the reviews if you have a different opinion.</p><p>(1) For those who are curious, the lyrics are from Dr Dre feat Snoop Dog - Bitches ain't shit. I've always found hilarious the thought of someone like Wonder Woman coming into contact with the world of rap music lmao.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Rejection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>The word immense did not do it justice. As he looked at the endless expanse of darkness ahead of him, he could not find a word in his vocabulary to describe its size. In truth, it was way, way larger than dozens of planetary systems put together, a darkness blacker than the darkest black. His eyes would have not been able to perceive its existence in the first place if it had not been for the accretion disks glowing at its edge.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"W-What is this?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>His voice was shaking. A brave and courageous man, someone who never backed down, someone who had dared to even fight against a god: that man, at that moment, was frozen. A primal fear beyond his reasoning gripped at his heart. He could not breathe. In terror, he could not even look away.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A thought came to his mind:</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'This is the end.'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Alarms rang and many warnings appeared on the screen of his computer. The ship began to shake terribly because of the force pulling at it, dragging it away from its trajectory.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Snapping out of his trance-like state, h</em>
  <em>e grabbed the controls of the ship in panic and pulled on them, trying to steer the ship away manually. He pressed on several buttons and all the engines of the ship blasted at full power. But for all his efforts, the only result was that the ship started shaking even harder and then, with a loud bang, one of the engines superheated and exploded.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Kurama!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>At his call, a yellow and red light came out of his body. He stood up from the pilot's seat and then squatted against the floor of the ship. The yellow and red chakra increased in density around him to such a degree that his silhouette became blurry, almost indistinguishable. His legs pushed against the floor with all the power he was capable of and he launched himself up like an unstoppable rocket. He broke through the reinforced special alloy that the outer walls of his spaceship were made of, straight into the Outerspace.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Now! Blast it!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Crimson red chakra burst from the soles of his feet, enveloping the several hundred feet long spaceship below. An enormous explosion boomed when the ship's main ion reactor blew up. That explosion did what the spaceships' engines could not achieve: it propelled him away violently, lessening the pulling force that had taken hold of his being.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There was no sign of relief on his face. A tailed beast bomb started to take form in the palm of his hands and it grew in size until it was as large as a football. But he did not throw it - where could he have thrown it to? For millions of miles, there was nothing around him. Pressing with his palms against it, the tailed beast bomb's spherical form was compressed to that of a plum. Then, it blew up and another violent explosion blasted him away. It was almost as powerful as a small nuclear bomb.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>In the vacuum of space, those two explosions hurled him to more than a million miles away from his initial location.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'Not enough! It's not enough!'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Desperation threatened to overwhelm him. He felt like no matter how far he flew, he would not be able to escape. He could not escape from the intangible claws of the devouring demon that had grabbed a hold of him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A shadow clone appeared behind him. But the clone did not have the momentum that the two huge explosions had granted to the original body. In a blink of an eye, the original body had disappeared from the clone's sight. Despite the original body's crazy speed and momentum, it had still not been fast enough to escape the radius of the explosion that followed. The shadow clone killed itself by creating and detonating another tailed beast bomb in his hands, just so the shockwave of the explosion could bast away the original body even further.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Terrible explosions with powers no less than that of nuclear bombs appeared like tiny suns as they lighted up, for a brief moment, the ever-present darkness of the space. The repeated shockwaves coming from them were enough to even pulverize some of his internal organs and make him cough up large amounts of blood. But after the explosion of nearly 10 tailed beast bombs, consuming much of his chakra pool, his body gained such an astonishing momentum in the vacuum of space that he had almost reached the speed of light. It was a speed that no-one could reach without the aid of a supernatural force protecting their being.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>With his body wrapped in a dense yellow and red chakra, he looked like a comet as he flew in desperation. But finally, he could feel it: the pulling force from behind was weakening. He was not far from his salvation: the event horizon.</em>
</p><p>⁂</p><p>He woke up with a start. Had half of his body not been petrified he would have jumped up to his feet. In his condition, he could only grab onto the bedsheets with his still working hand. He noticed that the sheets were soaked with his sweat. Closing his remaining eye, he tried to calm himself down. His heart was beating as if to jump out of his chest.</p><p>
  <em>'Void!'</em>
</p><p>Years had passed from the last time he had had that nightmare. But it was not just a mere dream. Out of the 3381 missions that Naruto had taken over the past century as an intergalactic mercenary, he had completed 3380. He had failed only one - it had happened when the events from his nightmare had taken place.</p><p>A supermassive black hole located very far from the 'borders' of the 3600 sectors of the Universe...It was the closest he had ever come to dying. It was the most terrified he had ever been of something. It was a fear that did not make sense because, normally, Naruto was not afraid of death. It was beyond his understanding, more than his mind could comprehend.</p><p>One hour spent at the very edge of its gravitational pull's range had meant over 50 years in the world outside the event horizon. Though he had completed the actual bounty before the supermassive black hole's gravitation derailed his ship off its course, by the time he returned to show proof of his bounty's completion and collect his reward, the person who had issued the bounty had died of old age. That was why it was counted as a failure.</p><p>One hour under the influence of that supermassive black hole had made him unaging, immortal. He had searched for information about black holes after surviving that incident. In this wide universe, there had been other people too who had stepped beyond the event horizon of a black hole and managed to escape and live to tell the tale. But he had never heard of someone becoming immortal as a result of it. He had also never heard of a black hole of that size before. The largest one recorded reached 'only' the approximate size of a planetary system.</p><p>To this day, he was convinced that it had not been a natural phenomenon.</p><p>
  <em>'Something...someone...must've created that thing.'</em>
</p><p>To this day, Naruto had been left with a deep fear of the Void. In front of that world-ending black hole, he felt insignificant.</p><p>
  <em>'Old Gods? New Gods? ...what a joke. Who dares to call themselves a god in front of the Void?'</em>
</p><p>"You're awake!" a girl's voice made him break out from his thoughts.</p><p>When he felt the cool sensation of a wet cloth wiping the unpetrified part of his forehead, he opened his eye. A curtain of long red hair appeared in his sight. It was Koriand'r; a worried look could be seen in her green eyes.</p><p>"Are you ok?" she asked but she realized how stupid her question sounded given that he could not talk and that half of his body had been turned to stone so she added: "Will you recover from this?"</p><p>All Naruto could do was to make a thumbs-up gesture with his hand. He could not write as he had done with Kyuubi because he did not know the Tamaranean language.</p><p>"Now this is weird," the girl said as she brought her face closer to him and sniffed. "The bed and your clothes are wet from how much you sweated but it doesn't smell."</p><p>If he had not been petrified, Naruto would have chuckled at her antics.</p><p><em>'This girl is not right in the head.' </em>he thought inwardly amused.</p><p>Koriand'r took his unharmed hand in hers and squeezed it but without putting too much force into it to not hurt him. She bowed her head and said:</p><p>"I was scared and confused at first because I suspected the worst when you said my parents sent you to rescue me. I mean they've been dead for years. I thought you were trying to trick me."</p><p>"But I want to thank you. You killed my captors. Your fox friend told me that you even killed the Psions who have imprisoned and experimented on me for years. I have etched this gratitude deep in my heart. No matter when or where I will always be ready to repay you for it. Thank you."</p><p>Koriand'r was a little startled when Naruto pulled his hand free from her grasp. She was even more surprised when his hand landed on her head. His hand was heavy and his palm and fingers were rough with callouses from a lifetime of wielding weapons...but it brought her a sense of gentleness like she had not felt in almost a decade, from the time when she was a young child, before her parents sold her out as a slave. She found herself leaning into his touch, taking comfort in that gentle head pat. However, that moment did not last long. After a few seconds, his hand became still and his one eye closed. Still tired, he fell asleep.</p><p>⁂</p><p>A planet reminiscent of a blue marble could vaguely be seen in the distance. Having just passed by planet Mars a few minutes ago, the Earth was now at only at 20 million miles away or so.</p><p>Ever since she woke up, Koriand'r had tried to talk more with the owners of the ship. But the man was in a terrible shape, bedridden and unconscious while the talking fox appeared to be in an awfully bad mood, even worse than when they had just met and he hit her. Any attempt of her starting a conversation was shot down with a growl and a fierce glare from him. After the third time, the girl wisely decided to stay silent and let the angry fox have his peace and quiet.</p><p>Nonetheless, the ship's destination was of great importance for her too since she was aboard as well. When she realized that they were on their way back to Earth, she could not hold in her doubts and worries and said:</p><p>"Why are we going back to Earth? Last time we went there they fought against me and they fought against your master too. They are not friendly."</p><p>Kyuubi growled at her again.</p><p>"Naruto is not my <em>master</em>. He is my little brother."</p><p>Koriand'r recoiled at the anger in the fox's voice and stood silent for a while.</p><p>"I'm sorry for my wrong assumption. Don't be angry at me anymore, please."</p><p>The fox let out a low growl from his chest.</p><p>"I'm not angry at you but I'll get pissed for sure you don't shut your trap for a moment. We're going to Earth for asylum. They are not bad people deep inside, they're just morons. But because they're morons they will protect us from others. Now that you know why we go there please keep quiet."</p><p>The Tamaranean princess made herself small and did not say anything else. In her mind, however, she wondered why was the fox so mean and angry at her all the time.</p><p>
  <em>'Does he hate me? Or maybe he hates everyone? ...or it could be that he's stressed because of his brother's condition?'</em>
</p><p>Kyuubi was, indeed, stressed out and very worried because of Naruto's condition but that was not the only reason for his irascibility. The main reason for his 'bad mood' was the massive amount of natural energy he had absorbed. While he had not gotten ill from all the natural energy that Naruto had pumped into him (he was a chakra beast, he did not have a normal, biological body), it had certainly amplified his rage and violent tendencies. After all, it had been a crazy amount of natural energy, so much that he had become even stronger and more immense than the Ten Tailed Beast, his progenitor, a god. In comparison to Juubi who was a mindless beast, Kyuubi was handling his power much better - and he had absorbed so much chakra that he had become a planet-busting behemoth. In the present, although it took him all of his willpower to restrain his berserk emotions, he did keep himself somewhat calm and in control. But Koriand'r pestering him with questions was not helping his situation at all; that's why he snapped at her the way he did.</p><p>It did not take long for the Almeracian ship to reach the Earth and its moon. When they were about to enter the outer layer of Earth's exosphere (about 6000 miles away from the planet), Kyuubi spoke to the AI of the computer in the control room.</p><p>"Activate the stealth mode."</p><p><em>"Roger. Stealth Mode will be activated in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Stealth Mode activated. Based on the remaining fuel, the stealth mode can be sustained for 20 minutes." </em>the AI's clear voice sounded.</p><p>A light flickered on the exterior of the ship and, after a few seconds, it became almost invisible. A vague distortion of the space was the only trace left of it. It was the perfect camouflage technology - that's how they had bypassed the Watchtower's radars and sensors two days ago as well when they came to capture Vandal Savage.</p><p>The Almeracian ship was about to enter the thermosphere of the planet when a very bright yellow light appeared seemingly out of nowhere and targeted it. Startled. Kyuubi used two of his tails to abruptly steer the sheep away, performing a roll that would have made even a professional pilot proud, managing to just barely dodge that yellow light. His efforts proved to be in vain, however, when the yellow light turned around and targeted their ship again, like a homing missile. This time, it was impossible to dodge it.</p><p>But Kyuubi did not give up. One of his tails elongated and pressed a red button.</p><p><em>"Energy shield deployed. Shield capacity: 100%. Stealth Mode deactivated." </em>the AI announced.</p><p>The fox growled in annoyance. The stealth mode being deactivated meant that the Justice League's Watchtower would no doubt catch wind of their arrival but it was still preferable to having their ship blown up by that weird yellow light missile.</p><p>But the following scene greatly startled Kyuubi. The yellow light passed through the energy shield unhindered and then even through the thick glass of the control room's window without as much as making a hole or causing any type of damage. It was as though it was immaterial.</p><p>The yellow 'missile' headed straight to Kyuubi who was in the pilot's seat. But now that it was right in front of his eyes and he could see it clearly, Kyuubi said in disbelief:</p><p>"What the hell?"</p><p>It was a Power Ring. A Yellow Power Ring belonging to the Yellow Lantern Corps, led by Sinestro. They were not as well known as the Green Lantern but they were still infamous enough for Kyuubi to have heard of them in the past.</p><p>The Yellow Power Ring went straight to his right paw and enlarged enough that it fitted around it like a bracelet. An intense yellow light started to glow as it enveloped his body and Kyuubi heard a voice coming from the ring:</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>"You have been chosen to wield a Yellow Power Ring. Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. You will be subjected to psychological and physical reconditioning. You will be transported to-"</strong>
  </em>
</p><p>All the rage and anger that Kyuubi had been bottling up until then exploded.</p><p>"Don't screw with me!" he roared and a wave of crimson red chakra burst out of his body. "Psychological reconditioning? You think you can enslave ME? You think I'd let anyone ever control me again?"</p><p>His size started to increase again and his entire body became covered in fire. The board of the ship and the supercomputer were melted in an instant and defeaning alarms started ringing. The ship began to shake terribly because the computer that had been controlling everything was destroyed. The gravity generator stopped working and the atmospheric pressure in the ship started to decrease rapidly. The ship began to lose altitude at a breakneck speed, and it soon reached the lower layer of the Thermosphere.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>"Conflicting emotional resonance detected. Rage overpowering fear. Targeted sentient deemed unfit to-"</strong>
  </em>
</p><p>The voice coming from the ring abruptly stopped because, at that moment, the gorilla-sized nine-tailed fox smashed his fire-covered fists together. A crisp sound was heard and the Yellow Power Ring was crushed into pieces.</p><p>But Kyuubi did not let his rage cloud his mind any longer. Quickly getting a hold of himself, he turned and tried to grab the controls of the ship...except that there were no controls left to grab anymore. The entire board had been melted by his flames a few moments before.</p><p>Just then, the ship began to shake even harder and the temperature rose at an alarming rate. They had entered the mesosphere. Their ship had caught on fire.</p><p>"Fucking hell! One disaster after another!" Kyuubi cursed.</p><p>He abandoned any hope of salvaging the ship. With no working computer and no controls to steer the ship while it was burning up from the friction with the atmosphere of the planet, not only that it was impossible to save the ship, they would also be in danger of dying if they remained aboard when it collided against the Earth. Not him specifically but the unconscious and half-turned to stone Naruto and the Tamaranean girl would definitely perish.</p><p>He rushed out of the control room and ran straight to the living quarters. When he entered the bedroom he saw Koriand'r protectively holding Naruto's kneeling statue-like body in her arms, to stop it from being smashed against the walls and the furniture as the ship was going down. Decisively, the now large fox wrapped two of his tails around the two of them and brought them closer to his body. A loud crash was heard when Kyuubi smashed his fist against the outer wall of the ship. Even despite his relatively small size at that moment - he was 'only' as large as a silverback ape - his punch was so powerful that no only that it broke the wall, but the entire ship was smashed into several pieces.</p><p>The three of them were hurled into the air but with his two arms and nine tails wrapped protectively around the unconscious and petrified Naruto and the Tamaranean princess, Kyuubi curled himself in a large ball of red fur, protecting them from all angles. Now, the ball of red fur started falling towards the ground like a meteorite.</p><p>"Wait! I can fly!" Koriand'r shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to make herself heard over the intense winds and air pressure as they fell.</p><p>Kyuubi's almost rabbit-like ears were not that long just for show. Though faintly, despite the roaring winds, he still heard what she said. He unfurled himself from his curled up position but he still kept two of his tails wrapped tightly around the two of them as they fell.</p><p>A bright green light glowed in Koriand'r eyes and around her hands and her face became strained as she tried to stop their descent.</p><p>"What the hell, woman, you said you can fly!" Kyuubi screamed when he saw that their falling speed was not decreasing at all.</p><p>Koriand'r grabbed one of Kyuubi's large ears and yelled as loudly in it as she could:</p><p>"Make yourself smaller! You are too heavy!"</p><p>
  <em>'This brat!'</em>
</p><p>His ear was ringing now. He felt like wanting to smack her for what she had done.</p><p>
  <em>'I'll definitely smack her when we get down!'</em>
</p><p>But in spite of his thoughts, he did return himself to his tiny form as a fox cub. Regardless, his arms and legs and his nine tails still latched around Naruto's waist securely. He was preparing himself for the worst-case scenario: if the girl could still not stop them from falling, he would enlarge himself again and wrap Naruto in his tails protectively like before. For him, smashing against the ground from that altitude would be an annoyance at most. It was not enough to seriously hurt him. But he was worried about what the shock of their impact against the ground might do to Naruto while he was in his current state. For Naruto's sake, he preferred landing safely instead of making a crater in the ground with his body.</p><p>Sure enough, after Kyuubi became a tiny fox cub, Koriand'r managed to stabilize themself in the air easily. However, as they were currently in the mesosphere, it was extremely cold, way below the freezing temperature of the water. Holding the petrified form of the kneeling Naruto in her arms and the fox that was latching onto his waist with his tails like an octopus, Koriand'r dived headfirst towards the ground at a very high speed. But, as it was a controlled flight, Kyuubi did not worry.</p><p>They were only around 20 miles above the ground, somewhere above the Indonesian Archipelago when a very large construct of green light in the form of a human hand stopped them in their flight. From behind them, a group of 5 people appeared, surrounding them from all sides. They were none other than Green Lantern, Superman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman - the five that could fly out of the 7 founding members of the Justice League.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You may or may not know but yellow lanterns have to go through a 'brainwashing' procedure and training before becoming full-fledged members of the corps. There's no way Kurama would ever allow someone to do something like that to him. Not after what he had suffered at the hands of the Uchiha's mind-control in the past. He rejected the yellow power ring.</p><p>Like always, I'm looking forward to your reviews.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Asylum</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two days after the Jump City incident, the members of the Justice League were together in the Watchtower at the request of Superman. The mood in the conference room was stifling and unnatural. Batman seemed more taciturn than usual, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter looked like they had a lot on their mind and Wonder Woman appeared to be distracted, not fully focused on her peers. Flash was his usual easy-going self but strangely enough for the rest of the JL members, Hawkgirl seemed to be in a great mood.</p><p>Superman sat up from his seat and opened his mouth to say something but Batman unexpectedly spoke first:</p><p>"Before you tell us the reason you called us, I'd like to say a few things. Looking back at what happened, I believe we could have avoided a fight with that alien mercenary. And it was all my fault. I want to apologize."</p><p>Momentarily, the other 6 heroes were stunned. They had never seen Batman apologising or admitting he was wrong about anything before - and they've been together for about a year by then. Though no less startled than the others, Superman was the first to react:</p><p>"You did nothing wrong, Batman. It was the right-"</p><p>"Please let me finish," Batman raised a hand and said. "The truth is that we didn't need to start a fight against him right away. We could have tried to solve our issues with him diplomatically first. After all, he was not the violent type that couldn't be reasoned with. Quite the opposite, he tried to reason with us and avoid clashing against us."</p><p>"But I let my ego get the better of me that day and I endangered you all. I have no excuse for that. I would like to temporarily retire from the Justice League and-"</p><p>Superman interrupted him once again:</p><p>"Absolutely not! That's exactly the opposite of what we should be doing now. We have faced other powerful aliens before but we stood united. Together, we could overcome them all. If we let just one setback break us apart we will be doomed."</p><p>"Superman is right, Batman," Wonder Woman said. "Don't beat yourself too hard. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. But we are a team and we pick each other up from the ground when we fall."</p><p>Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern nodded and Flash grinned and rushed behind Batman and put an arm around his shoulder as if they were best pals. Flash had expected for Batman to growl at him like usual for getting too close into his personal space but, to his amazement, Batman did not as much as glare at him. For a moment, Flash even entertained the thought of asking <em>'are you the real Batman?' </em>but he wisely decided to not push his luck too much.</p><p>"Today, I asked for everyone to be here because I wanted to talk to you about this: I am thinking of expanding the Justice League."</p><p>At Superman's words, noises of surprise came from the other heroes in the room.</p><p>"Over the past year, we've been through some tough times together. The last incident, in particular, showed me that the Justice League could use more members, more manpower. There are only 7 of us and the Earth is a very big place. It also looks like the more our technology advances, for some reason, the more often we get into contact with aliens. We have to step up our game."</p><p>Martian Manhunter who had been silent until then spoke:</p><p>"I whole-heartedly agree with what you said but we have to consider what would the government's reaction be. And not just the US government but the United Nations as well. The Justice League becoming too powerful will no doubt place a great amount of stress on them. Our decision to amass more power could be interpreted as hostile. We are already under the entire world's scrutiny."</p><p>While the Justice League were discussing in detail the pros and cons of expanding their organisation, a very loud alarm rang in the Watchtower. They all stood up and rushed towards the control room, with Flash and Martian Manhunter being the first to arrive there.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Twenty miles above the ground, somewhere above the Indonesian Archipelago, a very large construct of green light in the form of a human hand stopped Koriandr, Kyuubi, and the turned-to-stone Naruto in their flight. From behind them, a group of 5 people appeared, surrounding them from all sides. They were none other than Green Lantern, Superman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman - the five that could fly out of the 7 founding members of the Justice League.</p><p>But when the Justice League got the chance to take a better look at them, they received a small shock. The turned-to-stone Naruto was terrible to look at. More than half of his body had become a statue and it had taken on a toad-like appearance. If it had not been for the tiny fox latching on from his waist and the red-haired alien girl holding them both and flying they would have not recognized him.</p><p>"Jesus, no wonder he used to wear a mask," John Stewart unknowingly blurted out, earning himself a glare from Hawkgirl and Superman.</p><p>Green Lantern did a fake cough to pass over the moment and then a green light came out of his ring and encased everyone in a sphere. A deep demonic growl came from Kyuubi's and a crimson red chakra started to bubble around his tiny body when the green construct of light appeared to have trapped them but he did not immediately attack them. He could feel no negative emotions coming from the Justice League. Just a sense of cautiousness... and fear.</p><p>Green Lantern started by saying quickly:</p><p>"We don't want to fight against you. I used my power ring just to isolate ourselves from the wind so we could talk."</p><p>His words had merit because, at 20 miles above the ground, the roaring winds would have made it almost impossible for them to converse otherwise.</p><p>"Why have you returned to Earth? And what in the world happened to him?" Superman asked.</p><p>"Natural energy poisoning. We came back to Earth seeking asylum," Kyuubi said.</p><p>"Why Earth of all the places?" Martian Manhunter asked.</p><p>"Before coming to Earth 2 days ago, we had flown all the way from outside the 3600 sectors of the Universe. And then we flew straight to the Vega System. We didn't haven't enough fuel to reach a planet inhabited by sentient beings that were not in the middle of an intergalactic war or major civil unrest. Earth was the closest."</p><p>Kyuubi could naturally talk to any sentient beings regardless of their language. However, that was not the case for Koriand'r. Besides the words of Green Lantern that had been automatically translated by his Power Ring, she could not understand a thing from what Superman, Kyuubi and the Martian said as they talked with each other. However, knowing Kyuubi's temper, she was getting increasingly anxious at the situation. She could feel that the fox was on the brink of blowing up at them.</p><p>"We don't want any trouble! We just need a place to rest and heal up because our ship was destroyed!" Koriand'r said.</p><p>"What is the girl saying?" Superman asked Green Lantern to translate.</p><p>"That their ship blew up and that they don't want any trouble."</p><p>They momentarily stopped conversing amongst themselves because they realized that Kyuubi's situation was abnormal.</p><p><em>'I sense a great amount of rage coming from the fox alien. I would not be surprised if he attacked us at any moment. Stay on your guard.' </em>Martian Manhunter's voice sounded in everyone's mind.</p><p>The others became alert at his words because they knew not to be deceived about the fox's currently tiny appearance. According to the information that Green Lantern had shared with them before, that tiny fox was capable of becoming a behemoth that destroyed a planet. They knew that they had to make a decision fast before things got out of hand.</p><p>"If we let you come to Earth, what guarantee do we have that you won't start killing people left and right?" Wonder Woman suddenly asked.</p><p>"Diana-" Hawkgirl and Superman attempted to stop her. They thought that asking such a blunt question was undoubtedly going to enrage the fox and that was literally the last thing they wanted to do at that moment.</p><p>To everyone's great surprise, however, at Wonder Woman's words, the crimson energy swirling around Kyuubi seeped back into his body and he visibly took on a calmer appearance.</p><p>Listening to her mother's request, Wonder Woman had not told anyone yet that only the previous night she had become a demigoddess. That is to say that her powers were naturally stronger than before - including her affinity to nature and wild animals that goddess Artemis had blessed her with.</p><p>In addition, Kyuubi himself did not want to be angry and start a fight with anyone at that moment. Wonder Woman's influence helped him to restrain his volatile emotions and rage. The fox replied to her question in a much calmer voice than before, clearly more in control of himself:</p><p>"All I want is a place for my brother to recover. I have no intention of causing any trouble. As long as no-one disturbs us, you have my word. Do this for us and we will owe you a favour. You should be well-aware of what someone of our power owing you a favour means."</p><p>As Kyuubi said, the Justice League was keenly aware of how important was a favour from Naruto and Kyuubi. But the question present in everyone's mind then was:</p><p>
  <em>'Can he be trusted?'</em>
</p><p>But even if they could not trust him, they did not really have a choice. The Justice League was not confident in regards to a fight against the fox alien. Even more importantly, they had to think about the safety of the over a hundred million people living in the archipelago of islands below because unlike the first time around, they no longer underestimated Kyuubi. For all they knew, the fox could easily blow up half the ocean in its rage.</p><p>In the end, it looked like the current scenario was the best case possible: them coming to an agreement and the aliens even owing them a favour.</p><p>Superman and Martian Manhunter looked at each other for a moment before they turned and nodded at Wonder Woman. Having realized that the fox was more open to talking to her than anyone else, they let her speak for the Justice League.</p><p>"We agree to grant you asylum on our planet. We hope that you will not break your promise. But first, we'll take you to the Watchtower. Our medical equipment is better than what regular hospitals on Earth have."</p><p>"It's not something that medicine and science can fix. His condition and my rage are problems of a magical nature. But your presence feels calming. It's helping me focus. You...feel different than before." Kyuubi said, his slit crimson eyes peering into Wonder Woman's eyes.</p><p>The Amazon Princess was secretly startled.</p><p>
  <em>'I'm wearing the Bracelets of Submission. They're supposed to hide my true nature even from the gods...how did he feel it?'</em>
</p><p>It was Hawkgirl that spoke next:</p><p>"A friend of ours, Doctor Fate, is a great sorcerer. He may have a solution to your problem if it's of a magical nature."</p><p>Inwardly, Kyuubi was a bit suspicious of their behaviour. But he came to terms with it once he realized what the Justice League must be thinking at that moment.</p><p>
  <em>'They're afraid of endangering the millions of people below. The Green Lantern Corps have surely found out about what we've done to the Psions by now so most likely the Justice League is aware of my power now too...that's why they're so willing to talk now, eh? Well, no matter. It works for us.'</em>
</p><p>As if he knew exactly what Kyuubi was thinking about, Green Lantern spoke at that moment:</p><p>"We understand how dangerous you are and we don't want to risk a fight that would endanger the lives of the innocent people below. But even if the Justice League might not be enough to stop you, you should know that the Green Lantern Corps most certainly can. I will also let you know that the Guardians have already classified you as a Universal-level threat and they have their eyes on you."</p><p>Green Lantern and Kyuubi looked into each other's eyes silently for a few seconds. As a green power ring wielder, John Stewart's willpower was strong enough to look into Kyuubi's crimson-red eyes without flinching in fear. That fact alone earned the man a bit of respect in Kyuubi's mind.</p><p>"Just as you said you don't want any trouble, we don't want any either. I am telling you this so you know that we do have the ability to fight back."</p><p>Unexpectedly, Kyuubi nodded at his words.</p><p>"I gave you my word. I'm not a human. I do not lie."</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Two weeks had passed since Kyuubi, Koriand'r, and the petrified Naruto had arrived on Earth and struck a deal with the Justice League. True to his promise, Kyuubi did not cause any incidents. Instead, he had spent most of his time sleeping, gradually eliminating the excess of berserk natural energy that he had previously absorbed.</p><p>The Justice League had kept their word as well: currently, a man dressed in a blue suit, a yellow cape and wearing a golden helmet was coming out of the Javelin together with Superman and another blonde-haired teen girl.</p><p>"Doctor Fate. You've arrived." Green Lantern said as a form of greeting before raising an eyebrow and asking Superman: "What's she doing here?"</p><p>A helpless expression appeared on Superman's face.</p><p>"She's been pestering me every day over the past two weeks to take her up to the Watchtower. Meet my cousin, Kara Kent. Kara, this is John Stewart, a Green Lantern."</p><p>But the girl in question was too busy ogling at her surroundings to notice the annoyance in Superman's voice.</p><p>"Nice to meet you!" she said in a chirpy voice before taking flight, starting her exploration.</p><p>"She's quite a handful," Green Lantern remarked.</p><p>"You don't know half of it," Superman said and sighed. Despite his sighing and the tone of his voice, there was a smile on his face as he looked at Supergirl who was zooming around with no care in the world.</p><p>"Shall we go?" Doctor Fate said from the side.</p><p>The three men walked towards the hospital wing of the Watchtower. When they arrived in front of the room where Naruto slept, Doctor Fate was the only one who stepped inside. Superman and Green Lantern remained outside, watching through the window.</p><p>Sensing the newcomer's presence in the room, Kyuubi woke up from his slumber and opened his eyes - he had been sleeping on Naruto's chest, curled up and purring just like a cat.</p><p>"Hard to believe a fox as adorable as that is as dangerous as you say it is," Supergirl said when she came next to Superman and looked through the window just in time to see Kyuubi arching his back and stretching his tiny limbs as he yawned.</p><p>"That adorable fox can turn into a half a mile monster and blow up a planet. Appearances can be very deceiving." Green Lantern said.</p><p>Supergirl stuck her tongue at his words, making Superman chuckle and ruffle her hair with his hand.</p><p>"So he is the one who saved me from Argo?" she asked and looked at the sleeping Naruto with undisguised curiosity. "Whoa! Are those whiskers?! Why didn't you didn't tell me how cute he was!"</p><p>Superman palmed his forehead, feeling the beginning of a headache.</p><p>"He used to wear a mask. I couldn't see through it even with my X-ray vision. And if you saw him when he came back two weeks ago, you wouldn't think he was cute. He looked like a half-human, half-frog. It's only a few days ago that his face returned to normal. At least what we think it's his normal appearance."</p><p>It was the 5th time Doctor Fate came to the Watchtower to cure Naruto. Living up to his name as the owner of the Helmet of Fate and one of the greatest sorcerers in the world, Doctor Fate did manage to alleviate some of the effects of the poisonous natural energy in Naruto's body and speed up his innate regeneration ability. Because of that, the stone and toad-like appearance of his face was reverted to his original looks. His petrified leg had been turned back to normal as well. Only one of his arms was still petrified.</p><p>"By the way, who is that girl?"</p><p>Following the direction that Supergirl was pointing at, Superman and Green Lantern noticed Koriand'r who was sitting on a sofa in the room, not far from where Naruto's bed was. The red-haired girl was focused on the PSP in her hands, busily pressing on its buttons.</p><p>"She's the girl that caused that big commotion in Jump City 2 weeks ago. Apparently, the Psions have destroyed her homeworld, Tamaran. Myself and Wonder Woman are the only ones who can communicate with her - she doesn't know our language." Green Lantern said.</p><p>Supergirl grabbed the handle of the door and was about to go in but Superman stopped her.</p><p>"Don't go in there or that fox will beat you up good if you barge in - Flash felt than on his own skin. That fox doesn't like anyone else besides Doctor Fate and Wonder Woman."</p><p>"Ehh..." Supergirl made a bummed-out sound. "I can see why he'd like Doctor Fate: he's curing his friend's condition. But why does he like Wonder Woman?"</p><p>Green Lantern shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>"Beats me. Something to do with the blessing she received from the Greek Gods I guess. But I can't help thinking that something is different about her these days. You've noticed that Superman? Or I'm just overthinking things?"</p><p>Superman nodded.</p><p>"I can't put my finger on what exactly is going on either but she does look like she has something on her mind."</p><p>Though Wonder Woman had always been rather serious and kept most things to herself, the rest of the Justice League had noticed the subtle changes in her after the Jump City incident. She became more introverted, she talked less than before and she looked like she always had some pressing problems on her mind. Also, her hero costume had changed as well.</p><p>Oblivious to what Superman and Green Lantern were worried about, Supergirl knocked on the window and then started waving her hands, attracting the attention of Koriand'r who was playing on her PlayStation Portable. Koriand'r tilted her head in curiosity at the blonde girl who was making her signs to come over.</p><p><em>'She looks friendly' </em>Koriand'r thought and her face was brightened by a smile.</p><p>Over the past two weeks, she had started to feel cooped. Granted, it was nowhere near as bad as the years that she had spent imprisoned but it was a fact that she was bored. Seeing a girl of her age apparently trying to make friends with her naturally piqued her interest.</p><p>Leaving her PSP on the sofa, the Tamaranean princess came out of the room.</p><p>"Hello! I'm Koriand'r. What's your name?" she said and raised her hand for a handshake.</p><p>"She's saying hello and that her name is Koriand'r. She's asking you to introduce yourself," Green Lantern explained.</p><p>Supergirl shook the redhead's hand and a bright smile appeared on her face.</p><p>"I'm Kara. It's nice to meet you!"</p><p>But Supergirl's smile became a little stiff when Koriand'r seemed like she did not want to let go of her hand even after like 5 seconds passed. Suddenly, she was pulled!</p><p>"What-" she began to say but, before she could react, a soft feeling came from her lips, as Koriand'r kissed her on the mouth, muffling her words.</p><p>Supergirl backed away with a small shriek and a hand covering her mouth. Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were burning red in disbelief and embarrassment.</p><p>"Did I startle you? I'm sorry. My people have the ability to learn any language through the act of kissing."</p><p>"You! You stole my first kiss!" Supergirl yelled in embarrassment, pointing a quivering accusatory finger at her.</p><p>"You look rattled. Perhaps it felt bad you? I quite enjoyed it. Your lips are very soft and they taste sweet. Did you eat strawberries before?" Koriand'r said.</p><p>At her words, Supergirl gave up all pretence and just buried her face in her palms. Only her beet-red ears could be seen.</p><p>Koriand'r kissing Supergirl had been so out of the blue that Superman and Green Lantern were still watching the scene frozen. They had totally not expected something like that.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"You really helped me out a lot, Doctor Fate," Naruto said. "Without your aid, it would have taken me around 2 months to recover up to this stage."</p><p>The man in question was sitting on a stool next to Naruto's bed. His slouched posture and his laborious breathing betrayed how exhausted he was.</p><p>"I did it for the people of Earth. If it's in my powers, I will naturally do something about it. It is in my interest as well for peace to be preserved."</p><p>Naruto sighed at his words.</p><p>"Haa~ You guys are treating us like ticking bombs. But I would never hurt innocents for no reason."</p><p>Doctor Fate replied:</p><p>"You mean to say there were no innocents on the planet that you and your fox have destroyed?"</p><p>A low growl came from Kyuubi who was now sitting on Naruto's shoulder like he had used to do in the past. Naruto weakly brought his good hand up to pat him on the head and tell him to relax.</p><p>"I have no regrets about annihilating the Psions. There were no children or innocents among them. Only insane bastards who had taken over an entire system and took advantage of the Green Lantern Corps' preferential treatment to them and their pact of non-aggression to enslave and kill whomever they pleased in the Vega System. Over the hundreds of millions of years that the Psions had lived, countless have died at their hands."</p><p>"Even so, I would have not attacked them just for that. I don't get involved in others' problems needlessly and I certainly don't do it for free. But they targeted me."</p><p>"They bribed my information broker and then lured me into their territory with two very well-paid bounties - enough money that I could even buy a terraformed moon - all that so they could capture me. A fleet of almost 40 interstellar warships waited for me when I reached Tamaran. Though we easily dispatched of them, I knew that the Psions would never give up on me, especially after learning that I am powerful enough to annihilate a fleet of warships. I would have probably ended up on one of their dissection tables too at some point if I didn't kill them all first. After all, I can't always be on my guard. I am human too, not a god. I'm not invincible."</p><p><em>'You're human too?' </em>Was what Doctor Fate thought in his mind and had the urge to ask but chose to stay silent and listen to what he had to say. He realized that it was a very rare occasion to find more about the alien's motivation and inner thoughts. A chance to see how his mind worked.</p><p>"There were 87 prisoners locked up in the labs of the Psions. Through the special abilities granted to me by this energy that you've helped me remove from my body, I could sense every single living being on the planet and the nature of their character. I could even get a peek into their thoughts with it."</p><p>Naruto looked down seemingly deep in thought.</p><p>"I'm not happy about their deaths. If I could have saved them, I would have done it. But after a lifetime of travelling through the Universe, I learned two simple truths: being kind to your enemies is being cruel to yourself and that the world we live in is not such a pretty place where everyone can live happily ever after."</p><p>"Eighty-seven people died as collateral damage. But I ensured my own safety and I've also prevented hundreds of thousands or even more people that would have been captured and killed in the future by the Psions. I have liberated an entire System from their tyranny as well. Do you know that on over 20 planets in the Vega System hundreds of races have celebrated the day when the Psions died as the Day of Liberation? On many of those planets, they even erected statues of Kurama and it looks like cults focused on worshipping him have started being formed."</p><p>If Doctor Fate was silent before due to wanting to hear more about Naruto's thoughts, this time he became speechless because of what he heard.</p><p>"I see, people are finally realizing how great I am. It was about damn time if you ask me. Hahaha! But why is this the first time I heard about it?" Kyuubi said, his lazy appearance from before a stark contrast with how he was wagging his tails in excitement now.</p><p>"I bought this information from a news agency after I finally got my face back to normal a few days ago," Naruto said with a chuckle and tapped his wristwatch-like device. "I wanted to know what had become of the Vega System after what we have done there."</p><p>He turned his attention back to Doctor Fate and said:</p><p>"I'm not a psychopath or a ticking bomb that could explode at any moment. Believe it or not, I used to be no different than you and the Justice League when I was young. I was called a hero by my people, I've saved many lives. Even after my homeworld perished, I continued to carry those noble ideals and aspirations for many years. But time and tribulations change everything. In the present, in your and the Justice League's eyes, I'm probably just a deranged alien with more power than a man should have."</p><p>He laughed bitterly.</p><p>"It's funny, isn't it? You either die young as a hero or live long enough to see yourself becoming the villain."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Crisis (I)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You can't be serious!" a tall and athletic woman said angrily and slapped the table with her palm. But, without meaning to, she put too much strength into it and the long and luxurious conference table was smashed to bits making everyone else back away startled.</p><p>"Your reaction just now proves my point," Superman said. "I don't know what happened but there is clearly something wrong with you. Over the past two weeks, you've been distracted, made mistakes you wouldn't make normally and you've become very quick to anger too. Today you broke the arm of that robber and then lassoed him and dragged him on the ground to the police station."</p><p>"Now that was funny. It was like a scene out of a Wild West movie!" Flash piped up and laughed but he was the only one laughing. Noticing the glares everyone was directed at him, he swiftly shut up.</p><p>"Until you get a grip of yourself, it's best you take a break. I don't want you hurting someone for real or worse." Superman said.</p><p>Green Lantern also added:</p><p>"You're not in control of your emotions, princess. Losing control in the field could spell disaster both for us and for other people. Superman is right. Take some time and rest. Besides, someone has to stay behind and keep an eye on the alien mercenary and his fox."</p><p>Martian Manhunter suddenly called them from the control room of the Watchtower:</p><p>
  <em>"Everyone, Lex Luthor is on the move. He had stolen valuable pieces of technology from Star Labs. We have to move fast and intercept him."</em>
</p><p>At the Martian's call, everyone rushed out of the conference room except for Wonder Woman. She let herself drop on the chair and with her elbows on her knees, she buried her face in her palms. She let out a deep sigh. Out of habit, an exclamation came out of her mouth:</p><p>"Great Hera!"</p><p>But after realizing what she said she gnashed her teeth and, standing up, she kicked her chair into the opposite side of the room.</p><p>"Ah, I see. Anger management issues." a deep voice was heard from the entrance of the room and a chortle followed.</p><p>Turning around, she saw a small fox cub in the doorway with his fluffy nine tails wagging lazily behind him. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took in a deep breath before exhaling out loud, attempting to calm herself down.</p><p>Just then, a man in a wheelchair came from behind and picked the fox cub from the scruff of his neck as if he was a cat and put him in his lap.</p><p>"Don't tease the poor girl, Kurama."</p><p>It was Naruto. A bit over three weeks passed since the Psions' annihilation and by now, with Doctor Fate's help, all the infected natural energy had been expelled from his chakra pool and his body had reverted to normal. He was only left with a temporary feeling of weakness. In his books, he considered himself fine - nothing that a few dozen bowls of ramen could not fix - but the sorcerer insisted that he did not do any effort for a few more days, not even walking until he fully recovered.</p><p>"Is there something you need?" Wonder Woman said stiffly.</p><p>"I was on my way to grab some food from the kitchen for Kurama when I heard you guys arguing. Problems in Paradise?"</p><p>"They grounded her," Kyuubi said and snickered like a hyena. "Naughty girls get sent to their rooms."</p><p>Naruto involuntarily sniggered too but he quickly tried to mask it with a fake cough when he saw the woman's eyes almost spewing fire from how hard she was glaring.</p><p>"Why? What did you do?"</p><p>Seeing her refusing to answer, Naruto shrugged and turned his wheelchair around.</p><p>"Oh well. If you wanna talk, I can lend you an ear while Kurama eats."</p><p>Not waiting to hear her reply, he pushed his wheelchair out of the conference room and headed towards the elevator. He was halfway there when he felt someone push his wheelchair from behind.</p><p>He let his head back and looked up to see who it was...but it was not possible to see their face due to the large pair of breasts obscuring his view. Nonetheless, it became clear to him who that was.</p><p><em>'Wow. They're so much bigger up close.' </em>was his first honest thought.</p><p>But his eyes did not linger for more than 2 seconds because he practically felt Kyuubi starting to grin under his whiskers. He did not want the fox to do a repeat of what he had done after the incident with the Queen of Almerac, Maxima. He had laughed at him even after months from that incident.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Ridiculously loud sounds of chewing and swallowing were coming from a tiny fox as he gorged himself with food. If in the Elemental Nations Kyuubi could be described with one of the 7 deadly sins it would have been the sin of wrath. In the present, however, nothing fit him better than the sin of gluttony. His stomach was like a bottomless pit.</p><p>"It is amazing how much he can eat no matter how many times I see it," Wonder Woman said as a means of getting the conversation started.</p><p>"That's not what you wanted to talk about, was it?"</p><p>At his question, the princess' shoulders slouched.</p><p>"It's a long story. I don't know from where to start."</p><p>"Just start from the beginning. Not like I have anything else to do here," he said and he poured himself a glass of orange juice.</p><p>"Why am I even talking to a stranger about these things..." Wonder Woman muttered mostly to herself.</p><p>"You looked like you needed someone to talk to and I was bored. But it's up to you," he said easily and took a big gulp of juice from the glass.</p><p>Wonder Woman sighed.</p><p>"It started 3000 years ago when I was born."</p><p>Sounds of coughing came from Naruto as he choked with his juice and even the gluttonous fox stopped eating and looked at her instead with wide eyes.</p><p>"Did I hear well or is my translation device broken? Did she just say she's 3000 years old?!" Naruto asked Kyuubi in the native language of their homeworld.</p><p>Unlike Naruto, Kyuubi did not need a translating device. He could understand any language spoken by intelligent beings in the Universe naturally.</p><p>"No, you heard right. I can feel that she isn't lying either." Kyuubi also said in amazement.</p><p>"By the void, she's even older than you!" Naruto said in disbelief. "And I thought Tsunade was a granny posing as a young woman when she was only in her 50s but this girl, no, this woman is a grand-grand-many times-grandmother-"</p><p>He did not finish his words because Wonder Woman suddenly grabbed him from the collar of his sweatshirt.</p><p>"Do you want to spend the rest of your life in that wheelchair?"</p><p>"I'm in danger." Naruto chuckled awkwardly. "Kurama, a little help? I'm still a patient."</p><p>"Relax, she doesn't have any ill intent," Kyuubi said and went back to eating.</p><p>Wonder Woman did feel like wanting to smack him once but when she sensed the killing intent lying dormant inside the fox she wisely decided to let go of Naruto and sat back on her chair.</p><p>"Are you always that short-tempered? Sheesh..." Naruto complained as he smoothened the wrinkles on his shirt after she let go of him.</p><p>Wonder Woman appeared to be distracted by his words. In truth, she was usually nowhere near as impulsive as she had become as of late.</p><p>"Anyway, I was at fault too," he continued. "Looks like no matter the planet or race, all women are sensitive about their age. Should've kept my mouth shut... hold up, how did you even know what I was saying?"</p><p>"Goddess Athena's blessing allows me to communicate with people regardless of their language." Wonder Woman said and he made an impressed sound.</p><p>"Heeh. That's so convenient. But 3000 years - that's even more than the entire recorded history of my homeworld... it's crazy when I think about it. As someone who's lived for so long, what exactly managed to rattle you that badly?"</p><p>Understanding what Naruto was implying, Wonder Woman shook her head.</p><p>"Although I've lived for so long, I'm not as experienced in life as you think."</p><p>"Until about a year ago, I have lived on the Island of Paradise, with my Amazon sisters, away from the evils of the world. I didn't go through any problems or difficulties until I came to the Man's World. On Themyscira it was different. Just like me, my mother and my fellow Amazon sisters, everyone else was immortal. There were no crimes and any conflicts that we might have had, we solved them in a fair fight on the training grounds. It was Paradise. I didn't notice the passing of time the way I do now when I live among regular people. We would spend most of our days training, singing, praying to the gods and..."</p><p>She trailed off seemingly at a loss.</p><p>"And? What else?" Naruto asked.</p><p>"...that's all we did..." she said uncomfortably, suddenly becoming aware of how wrong that sounded.</p><p>"That's all you did for 3000 years?!"</p><p>Naruto looked at her as if she had grown two heads. He had lived for only around 110 years but he had had so many adventures back in his homeworld and then during his travels as an intergalactic mercenary that he could fill tens of books with them.</p><p><em>'I could probably earn a living just from writing novels about my adventures and selling them,' </em>he mused.</p><p>Numerous life and death battles, hilarious moments, embarrassing incidents, the thousands of different places he had seen, the different creatures and races he had encountered and so on. All that, in less than 120 years. Yet someone like Wonder Woman who had lived for over 3000 years resumed her life experiences in one sentence - training, singing and praying?</p><p>
  <em>'How can someone live such a dull live and not get sick of it?! It's freaking 3000 years!'</em>
</p><p>A look of helplessness flashed on Wonder Woman's face. With her intelligence, once she became aware of it, it was not difficult to deduce that the Amazons not noticing the passing of time and them never getting sick and tired of doing the same thing - training - all over again for thousands of years was not natural. It was because of the Gods. A spell must have been cast on Themyscira to make them mindlessly chase just one goal: that of protecting the gates of Tartarus and nothing else. They were like attack dogs trained and locked up to protect a courtyard, never to leave or even think of escaping.</p><p>"I don't know what to think anymore... I don't know what I should do!" she said in exhaustion.</p><p>She had never been as confused and mentally exhausted as that before and that led to moments like the previous scene when her bottled up emotions blew up and she smashed the table in the conference room with a slap. Wonder Woman did not have any real close friends to confide in either. Hawkgirl, the only other woman in the Justice League, was not exactly her biggest fan and the others were men; she was not particularly close to anyone. She could not talk to others about what was tormenting her.</p><p>Naruto did not have Kyuubi's Negative Emotion Sensing but he did not need a special skill to understand what she was going through at that moment. Although he had given up on trying to change people and the world a long time ago, his innate gift of connecting with people had never disappeared. Neji Hyuuga, Gaara of the Sand, Nagato Uzumaki and even Obito Uchiha - they were people that used to hate him and even tried to maim or kill him but they were all changed by him in the end. Mortal enemies became his best friends and even sacrificed their lives to right their wrongs. Kyuubi often laughed at him when they reminisced their past, saying that his most powerful technique when he was young was not his Rasenshuriken but his "Talk no Jutsu".</p><p>He had always had the talent of making people open up to him with but a few words. The same thing was happening with Diana in the present too. Despite that he was a stranger, she felt a strong urge to confide her circumstances to him, something that she had not done with even with the rest of the Justice League. The fact that she did not have any close friends did not do her situation any favours either.</p><p>"All my life I believed that I had been sculpted from clay and given life by the gods. For thousands of years, my faith in them has never wavered. But now-"</p><p>Wonder Woman stopped as though she was afraid to continue talking because if she did, her words would be a blasphemy against the gods. Her lower lip trembled but her teeth sunk into it.</p><p>"Two weeks ago I found out everything was a lie. I was born like a normal baby but not in normal circumstances. My mother was raped by the king of the gods I used to worship. And now, his wife, one of the patron goddesses of the Amazons, will try to kill me the moment she finds out her husband cheated on her again."</p><p>"Where is the justice in that?! These are the gods I worshipped for thousands of years? I'm fighting to protect the justice in the name of a rapist and a lawless and murderous jealous wife that wants to kill me?"</p><p>She let her back fall on the backrest of her chair. She was not crying but the defeat and powerlessness in her voice spoke volumes of her feelings. She was exhausted by her inner conflict between the faith she had been raised with and the cruel reality. Three thousands of years of blind faith in the gods could not be so easily erased from her heart despite her rationality speaking up against it.</p><p>"You said you left your Paradise Island about a year ago, right? Why did you leave it? What drove you to come out after 3000 years?" Naruto asked.</p><p>Wonder Woman replied:</p><p>"A race of alien conquerors invaded the Earth and almost conquered it. I came out to help everyone, to prevent that from happening."</p><p>Naruto made a humming sound.</p><p>"Did your gods send you to do that?" he asked.</p><p>She shook her head in negative.</p><p>"No. Actually, Amazons are forbidden to leave Themyscira. We are bound to guard that place for eternity."</p><p>He almost smiled at her words.</p><p>"So you left your home against the will of the gods?"</p><p>It was a rhetorical question so he did not expect her to answer. He continued:</p><p>"You came out, against the will of your gods, to fight against the invaders. You didn't do it for the gods or in their name. You did it to protect the innocent."</p><p>At those words, she raised her head and looked him in the eyes. Despite his rather scary appearance with his beast-like red slit eyes and thick black whisker-like marks on his face, at that moment, Wonder Woman did not feel any apprehension or trepidation when she looked at him.</p><p>"I can't put myself in your shoes. I can't imagine how it is to blindly believe in a god for thousands of years only to find out that he raped your mother..."</p><p>"But what I can say is that the most important thing is to stay true to your values. It's not your origins that define you. It's not the gods who decide who you are. Your values and your actions are what define you as a person."</p><p>"Look at your past deeds and ask yourself again: 'who am I?'. I trust the answer will be much easier for you to find now."</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>"Put me on trials, lock me up but I'll beat it. Watch: I'll be out in days!" a bald man said but a green construct of light took the shape of cuffs around his wrists and he was thrown roughly to the ground. Even with the strength of his power suit, he could not break free.</p><p>"Sorry I messed up back there." Flash apologised after Lex Luthor was taken by the police and arrested.</p><p>"Apology accepted," Superman said with a smile. After all, although Flash did make a mistake, it was still him who dismantled Lex Luthor's weapon and beat him down in the end. "As soon as the damage is fixed-"</p><p>"Got a second?" Flash said with a smirk and a red blur put everything in the room in order in the blink of an eye.</p><p>Just then, a yellow portal was opened in the wall of the room a green-skinned humanoid wearing a black suit and a dark blue cloak stepped out of it.</p><p>"Who-, Who are you?" Martian Manhunter asked.</p><p>"I'm you," the newcomer replied.</p><p>He was identical in looks with Martian Manhunter. He proceeded to explain that he was from another dimension and that both of their worlds were facing a crisis.</p><p>"And the dimensions appear to be collapsing on each other. Our Batman built this portal to try to find help."</p><p>"But what can we do?" Green Lantern asked.</p><p>"We're not sure yet," the other dimension Martian replied. "But my dimension seems to be at the centre of it and that would be the best place to start looking for an answer."</p><p>While the other Martian was explaining his plan to the rest of the Justice League, Batman secretly asked Martian Manhunter:</p><p>"Have you read his mind yet?"</p><p>"Martians don't do that to one another." J'onn J'onzz answered.</p><p>"Can't? Or won't?" Batman asked.</p><p>"Both," he replied.</p><p>At that moment, Superman asked everyone:</p><p>"So it's agreed then: we go?"</p><p>"Sure, ok." Flash agreed.</p><p>"Right," Hawkgirl said too.</p><p>"What about your dimension's Wonder Woman?" the other Martian asked.</p><p>"Wonder Woman is indisposed at the moment. She is temporarily not taking part in the Justice League's activities." Martian Manhunter answered to his counterpart.</p><p>With everyone's approval, the Justice League followed the other dimension Martian into the portal. As the last two to enter, Batman and Martian Manhunter stopped before stepping through the portal.</p><p>"It might be for the best that Wonder Woman is not together with us," Batman said. "Can you send her a telepathic message and inform her of the situation?"</p><p>"Why? Do you think they are planing something?" Martian Manhunter asked.</p><p>"I don't know. But it's always better to have insurance."</p><p>Martian Manhunter looked at him blankly. Although he thought that Batman was just being his usual self - never fully trusting anyone - and despite that he did not have any reason to not trust his other self from the other dimension, he still did as Batman asked him and contacted Wonder Woman telepathically.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The title refers to not only Wonder Woman's internal crisis but also to the crisis that the League is about to face. I think you probably recognized it but just in case you didn't, this chapter and the following one are based on the events of the episode "A better world", with a little twist.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Crisis (II)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I've told you about Themyscira. What about you? Where do you come from?" Wonder Woman asked curiously.</p><p>After talking to Naruto about the worries and frustration weighing on her, she became noticeably calmer and more relaxed. With fewer things clouding her mind, she was free now to think about other things as well and that moment looked like the perfect opportunity to find out more about him. Any information she could get in regards to him might prove to be very useful for the Justice League later on.</p><p>"My homeworld revolved around the use of chakra. To put it simply, controlling the elements of nature with magic. Because of that, we called it the Elemental Nations. As for where it is, I don't know. An enemy of mine, because she could not defeat me, pushed me into a dimensional portal. It's been almost 98 years since then; all this time I've been searching for a way back home but to no avail. I have given up on it...even if I did find a way back home right now, of what use would it be anymore? By now, everyone I've ever known would be dead."</p><p>What he said was very depressing but his expression was serene. He had come to terms with it. Almost a century of being obsessed with it was more than enough. Thanks to Kyuubi, he had finally let go of it half a year ago.</p><p>"So your people don't live as long as you do?"</p><p>"Most people back in my homeworld were regular humans, just like the ones on Earth. I was not much different when I was born either. It's through years and years of bitter training that regular people could become superhuman back on my planet - we called ourselves shinobi. But shinobi didn't live long lives. Our world was ridden with wars: 4 world wars took place in less than 8 decades. Heck, just in 4 years, my nation was invaded two times and even razed to the ground. Most shinobi didn't pass the age of 60. There was too much war, too much killing. Even so, it was my home."</p><p>Wonder Woman could not mask her surprise.</p><p>"You were an ordinary human too? You mean that everyone can achieve that kind of strength just through training?!"</p><p>Kyuubi stopped eating at that moment and snorted.</p><p>"Hng, as if! He forgot to say that he is the reincarnation of the son of a god and that I was his source of power for over 40 years. No regular human could ever reach that level of power. Most shinobi were so weak that I could kill hundreds of them with just a swipe of my tails."</p><p>Naruto scratched the back of his head and chuckled.</p><p>"He's right. That's also why I look like this," he admitted and gestured to his face. Hard work had was a major reason why he became so powerful but he could not downplay the importance of his background as Ashura's reincarnation or Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki either.</p><p>At that, her eyes were involuntarily drawn to the dark scars on his cheeks and the slit pupils and red irises of his eyes. She was not sure what the fox's words meant exactly but when she was about to ask another question, Martian Manhunter's voice rang in her mind:</p><p>
  <em>"Wonder Woman, it's me, J'onn J'onzz. After we arrested Lex Luthor in Metropolis, a portal appeared and someone that looked just like me came out. It was me from another dimension, similar to ours. Now we're all crossing over to their dimension to help them with their crisis but Batman thought you ought to know that and stay vigilant."</em>
</p><p>"Wait, J'onn!"</p><p>She wanted to ask for more details but their mental connection was severed because Martian Manhunter and Batman stepped through the portal crossing into the other dimension. She stood up from the table and said:</p><p>"Thank you for listening to my problems. It was of great help for me to talk about it, it made me feel more at peace. But now something urgent came up and I have to go."</p><p>After saying that, she rushed out of the room.</p><p>Pushing the wheels with all his strength, Naruto's wheelchair became comically fast, fast enough to even catch up to the running princess from behind. A distracted look appeared on her face when she turned her head around and saw the speeding wheelchair hot on her trail and she found herself smiling in amusement. But that smile quickly turned into full-blown laughter when she saw a tiny fox also coming from behind running but with all kinds of meat and other food wrapped into his 9 tails.</p><p>Still giggling, she stopped and said:</p><p>"Why are you two following me? You can't be thinking of coming with me! Superman and the others won't let me live it down if I let you leave the Watchtower."</p><p>"Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen? I'm in a wheelchair."</p><p>"It's not you that I'm worried about," she said.</p><p>But as Wonder Woman's eyes trailed to the nine-tailed fox that was running towards them as fast as his tiny limbs could take him her resistance almost melted.</p><p>
  <em>'Adorable.'</em>
</p><p>She was finding it difficult to imagine that a fox cub as cute and as harmless-looking as that could transform into a half a mile long behemoth and destroy a planet.</p><p>Finally catching up to them, Kyuubi swallowed the remaining food in his jaws and said:</p><p>"Stop worrying over nothing. Even if all of you were together, you'd have no way to stop me if I wanted to do something. We've been cooped up in this satellite for more 3 weeks. I want to see the world below and get some fresh air."</p><p>"You know, I'm not going down to relax! It's Justice League business!" Wonder Woman retorted.</p><p>"You could fight it out and then lose and still do our way. Or you might as well take the chance to strike a friendship with us. At least that's what I would do if I were you."</p><p>Naruto looked at the fox weirdly. When has Kyuubi ever taken the initiative to approach someone just to become friends with them? Naruto had been together with Kyuubi for over 100 years and he had never seen the fox offering his friendship to someone other than him while having no ulterior reasons.</p><p>Mildly amused, he decided to just go with the flow. Surprisingly enough, the stoic princess caved in under the fox persuasion very quickly. Just then, Naruto's red slit eyes happened to meet with Kyuubi's red slit ones too. Having lived together for so long, Naruto could discern every little bit of emotion in the fox's eyes and on his face. How could he have not noticed the shrewd look Kyuubi had thrown his way?</p><p>
  <em>'What is your mind cooking up this time, Kurama?'</em>
</p><p>But just like Naruto could read Kyuubi like a book, it went the other way around too.</p><p>When had Naruto ever talked to someone about his private life or his native homeworld? The answer was almost never. Until then, he had consciously gone out of his way to not become attached to other people and he avoided personal conversations too. He had only been obsessed with finding a way back home and doing business (his work as a mercenary) in order to support his space-travel expeditions. There had been no room for friends or other types of relationships in his life.</p><p>However, over the last few days, Naruto talked about his past with Doctor Fate and with Wonder Woman too. Seeing Naruto finally start opening up to people, even if just a tiny bit, made Kyuubi happy. And they were not just random people. With his Negative Emotion Sensing, Kyuubi could discern a person's true nature and he approved of both Doctor Fate and Wonder Woman's characters.</p><p>Unknowingly, the fox had taken over the role of a father watching over his son. All he wanted now was for Naruto to be happy.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>When Naruto, Kyuubi and Wonder Woman arrived in Metropolis it was already night. But just as they got out of the Javelin, a distant boom resounded over the entire traffic of a city of millions.</p><p>"There is trouble!" Wonder Woman said "Please don't do anything to break the law and don't destroy those trackers. You promised."</p><p>Not waiting for an answer, she took flight urgently towards the place from where the booming noises were coming.</p><p>"Hey wanna see what's going on?" Naruto asked after the princess left.</p><p>Kyuubi narrowed his eyes at him.</p><p>"Don't give me that look. No way I'm letting you ride on me!" Kyuubi barked at him.</p><p>"Why not?! You have no issues with it when I'm giving you chakra in return, heh?"</p><p>"It's different when I'm the size of a mountain. You're no bigger than a fly then. But now? How do you want me to carry you? Idiot!"</p><p>"Just get as big as a horse or something," Naruto said with a smirk. He knew exactly what buttons to push to make the fox angry at him.</p><p>"I'm not your mount! I'll kick your ass, asshole!" Kyuubi shouted.</p><p>Naruto chuckled in amusement. The fox was over 1000 years old but he fell prey so often to such small provocations. His pride truly knew no bounds.</p><p>"Aye, aye, calm down," he said with a smile and then stood up from his wheelchair.</p><p>Now standing on his feet, he stretched his stiff back and limbs until he heard a satisfying pop. He was still not at 100% but that did not mean he was a vegetable. He had used a wheelchair over the past few days mostly to lower the Justice League's guard against him rather than not doing any effort because of Doctor Fate's nagging.</p><p>"Ha! As I thought, you were pretending!" Kyuubi shouted triumphantly.</p><p>"But I wasn't. I still feel a bit faint and dizzy when I stand. For example, I can't use wind chakra to fly right now...but I guess that some simple wall dashing is not too much for my current condition."</p><p>With that, he left the wheelchair by the Javelin and jumped high into the air, landing on top of the roof of a smaller building nearby. He made a slow clawing motion over his face with his hand and a white ANBU-style fox mask appeared. Just as he was getting ready to jump onto another rooftop, a small weight suddenly landed on his shoulder. It was none other than Kyuubi.</p><p>"So you don't wanna carry me around but when I carry you around it's fine, eh? Not this time, boi!" Naruto said and grabbed the fox cub by the scruff of his neck and threw him off the building.</p><p>"NARUTO!" Kyuubi screamed as he fell.</p><p>"Wahaha!" Naruto laughed out loud and jumped off without a care in the world.</p><p>He was still in mid-air, half-way across the distance between the two buildings' rooftops when a furry red appendage wrapped around one of his ankles. His laughter abruptly died in his throat and this time it was his turn to yell:</p><p>"KURAMA!" he hollered as he fell to the ground, dragged down by the fox that had suddenly become as large as a horse - like Naruto had asked.</p><p>One man screaming and one fox laughing, the two of them crashed onto one of the cars parked below, completely flattening it and making alarms blare all around them from the surrounding cars. For a moment, they glared at each other but then they started barking with laughter.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>While Kyuubi and Naruto were play-fighting and fooling around like man-children, the situation was completely different on the other side of Metropolis. An 8 feet tall humanoid monstrosity was destroying everything in its sight. The alien was grey-skinned, extremely muscular and vicious-looking bone spike protruded from his shoulders, arms and head.</p><p>Wonder Woman arrived in time to see the Justice League fight against him.</p><p>"They're different."</p><p>If their different costumes were not enough to tip her off, seeing a twin version of herself, her counterpart from the other dimension, was enough to convince her of that. But, as a trained warrior, she also took notice of how well they coordinated with each other as a team. It was not something that she and the other members of the Justice League were capable of.</p><p>Her first impulse was to join the fight and help them subdue the monster but she stopped herself from doing that. She could not exactly put her finger on what was wrong but Martian Manhunter's telepathic message and the fact that she could not see the Justice League of her dimension was making her wary.</p><p><em>'They don't look like they need my help anyway.' </em>she thought.</p><p>She decided to take on a wait and see approach. Not long after her arrival though, she noticed a masked man with a fox cub on his shoulder appearing on the rooftop, right next to her. Coincidentally, it was also at that moment that the grey-skinned alien started fighting back against the other dimension Justice League even more fiercely than before. He shattered a railway bridge making the Wonder Woman of the other dimension rush to stop the train before it fell off to all the passengers' deaths, and then he almost knocked out Hawkgirl with an uppercut and blew up a car's gas tank into Martian Manhunter's face, almost taking him out too. With seemingly endless energy, he also jumped at the black and white costumed Superman and started to slam him against the ground and the walls of the nearby buildings like a ragdoll.</p><p>"20 bucks on the ugly guy," Kyuubi said, making Naruto chuckle.</p><p>"I bet on the edgy Superman. Kryptonians are tough nuts to crack and this guy isn't a pushover like the other Superman we know."</p><p>Seeing two identical Amazonian princesses and the rest of the Justice League wearing different costumes, it was not difficult for Naruto to deduce that they were not the Justice League he knew.</p><p>Wonder Woman frowned when she heard the two of them chitchatting and making light of the current situation but she did not comment on it because just then, the monster slammed the black and white costumed Superman so hard that it made a crater in the street below. However, despite the violent slam, Superman stood up with no apparent difficulty.</p><p>"What do you want?" the other dimension Superman said.</p><p>The muscular and grey-skinned alien walked towards him slowly, his monstrous physique being seen even more clearly now under the lights coming from a helicopter flying above.</p><p>"Same as you I imagine." the alien's coarse voice rang. "Power. Control. But I had to see the best this planet had to offer. I am not impressed."</p><p>At those words, Superman narrowed his eyes and lunged at him.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>*boom*</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>A shockwave exploded from the impact of the grey-skinned alien's fist against Superman's face and it shattered all the glass and windows of the builds and cars 300 feet around them.</p><p>"Dayum, that's some serious strength!" Naruto whistled impressed.</p><p>"Superman!" Diana cried out in distress and was about to jump off from the sidelines and finally join the fight but two red tails suddenly wrapped around her wrists, stopping her.</p><p>"What's the big idea? Let go of me!" she shouted at Kyuubi but he said seriously:</p><p>"Naruto and I made a bet. The fight is not over yet, so don't butt in."</p><p>"Puhu!" Naruto almost burst into laughter but he quickly masked it with a fake cough.</p><p>Momentarily, Diana didn't know how to react to how ridiculous that statement was.</p><p>"Don't worry, I'll stop your friend from getting mangled if it comes down to it."</p><p>At those words, Diana remembered just who exactly the tiny fox had that immobilized her was. Especially feeling the incredible strength in the tails restraining her, she no longer had any doubts about Kyuubi's powers.</p><p>The muscular alien came to the new crater that Superman had made with his body.</p><p>"You think you can hurt me?" he said and his massive foot stomped on Superman's prone body several times, further burying him into the ground.</p><p>"My skin can withstand a nuclear explosion!"</p><p>He grabbed Superman by the neck, raised him in the air and prepared to throw another devastating punch.</p><p>"My bones are-"</p><p>But just as he was speaking, 2 beams of red light came from Superman's eyes and hit him right in the forehead.</p><p>Drool came from the corner of the creature's mouth and he lost all strength in his limbs, falling to the ground on his knees.</p><p>Kyuubi no longer needed to restrain Diana because she stopped trying to break free, too startled by what she had just witnessed: Superman had just lobotomized someone in front of so many people!</p><p>"What the hell, you really never lose a bet do you?" Kyuubi said irritated.</p><p>Naruto shook his head and admonished.</p><p>"Kurama, Kurama, have I ever lost a bet? Over a century has passed yet you never learn your lesson. Tsk! Tsk! Shame on you."</p><p>The fox growled unhappily but did not retort.</p><p>"That creature single-handedly almost defeated the Justice League, why are those humans even pointing their backwater crappy guns at him? Tell me, Naruto, why are most humans so stupid?"</p><p>Naruto chuckled at Kyuubi's abrasive words. It did look ridiculous to him too that the policemen were pointing their pistols at the alien creature and then tried to cuff his hands. It was as if they had not just watched how he tanked Green Lantern's power ring blasts without even getting scratched.</p><p>A huge swarm of reporters popped out seemingly out of nowhere and flocked around the Justice League throwing dozens of questions at the same time.</p><p>"You...lobotomised him!" Lois Lane said, her voice betraying her shock.</p><p>"What's your question, Lois?" Superman asked curtly.</p><p>"It's-, it's so out of character..." she added.</p><p>"It's about time if you ask me." one of the nearby journalists said and many others voiced their agreement.</p><p>"That's right!"</p><p>"Absolutely!"</p><p>Another one among the reporters asked:</p><p>"And what's with the new costumes, guys?"</p><p>"We just felt it was time for a change." the black and white costumed Superman said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Crisis (III)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In this chapter, I will use Diana for 'our' Wonder Woman, and Wonder Woman for the other dimension Wonder Woman to help you not get confused.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the Justice Lords took flight and left the group of reporters behind, Diana suddenly flew in front of them, cutting their way.</p><p>"Where is the rest of the Justice League? And what were you thinking?! How could you lobotomise someone in front of the whole world?!"</p><p>The 5 Justice Lords members stopped in their flight and looked at each other. It was the other dimension Wonder Woman that replied to her:</p><p>"If you were raised anything like I was, you would be an Amazon. You should be no stranger to the concept of not showing mercy to your enemy."</p><p>Diana clenched her hands into fists.</p><p>"Even if that was the case, why do it publicly?" Turning towards Superman she said: "I don't know what is the situation back in your world but here the Justice League is a symbol of hope. Not of terror! We don't just take the law in our hands to punish whomever we please."</p><p>Justice Lord Green Lantern retorted:</p><p>"You think we were any different at first? We tried the same route back in our dimension too. Until our Flash was murdered and Luthor crawled his way up to become the United States' president. Do you know what happened? He triggered World War 3!"</p><p>Justice Lord Superman also said:</p><p>"Democracy is nice. But the problem with it is that it doesn't keep you very safe. Too much freedom leads to chaos and chaos leads to war, death and misery. If we hadn't taken control of our dimension with an iron fist, the world would have been destroyed. Do you think hope or honour or honesty are what keep people in line? No. What keeps them in line is fear. I lobotomized that creature in front of the whole world, for them to understand that crimes will not be tolerated anymore. For all the villains to learn what fear means."</p><p>Diana could not help shouting:</p><p>"Do you even hear yourself? How are you any different from Darkseid? He also keeps the "peace" on all the planets he had conquered. That's not peace! It's terror!"</p><p>Justice Lord Hawkgirl's mace began crackling with electricity and she said:</p><p>"Batman was right when he said they wouldn't want our kind of help. That they wouldn't understand. Good thing that we've captured the rest already."</p><p>With no further ado, she lunged at Diana and swung her mace at her wildly.</p><p>Diana blocked the mace with her wristguards but the electricity made her shout from pain and lose control over her flight. She had awakened as a demigoddess, as the daughter of Zeus who was the God of Lightning so normal electricity should have not been able to harm her. However, Hawkgirl's mace was made of the Nth metal, a metal capable of disrupting all forms of magic. The Nth metal was the bane of all magical existences: and magic was what protected Diana and gave her supernatural powers.</p><p>Before Diana could right herself in the air, Greem Lantern followed up with a concentrated blast of green light and then the other dimension Wonder Woman grabbed Diana's arms from the back and locked her in a Nelson hold. Right away, Superman came to the immobilized Diana and he punched her in the stomach with all his strength, creating a shockwave no smaller than the one that the grey-skinned alien made when he punched him, blasting all the glass windows in the vicinity. Spittle flew out of Diana's mouth and her eyes rolled in the back of her head.</p><p>"Did you have to hit her that hard?" the other dimension Wonder Woman said with a frown.</p><p>"I know exactly how tough you are, princess. Your physique is not much below mine. If she was anything like you, she wouldn't stay down unless I used my full strength." Superman justified himself.</p><p>From the start to finish, the other dimension's Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Superman's teamwork was completely flawless. With the 4 of them working together against her, Diana was not given a chance to react in any way.</p><p>Green Lantern used his power ring to envelop the now unconscious Diana in a bubble of green light, intent on taking her away but a smoke bomb suddenly exploded in the Justice Lords' midst. Before anyone could make sense of the sudden situation, a massive appendage slammed against Green Lantern, sending him crashing into the ground like a cannonball. It was an enormous crimson-red tail.</p><p>"John!" Hawkgirl cried out and dived down after him.</p><p>But when she broke away from the group, a voice came from the side:</p><p>"Fuuton: Vacuum Bullets!"</p><p>Four bullets made of highly pressurised wind perforated Hawkgirl's feathered wings. Screaming in pain, she crashed into the ground not far from where Green Lantern was lying unconscious.</p><p>Superman came to his senses immediately, in less than 3 seconds. However, for a powerful shinobi launching a surprise attack, 2 seconds were more than enough to reap the life of 2 unsuspecting people if he desired so, especially while working together with a tailed beast. Superman inhaled sharply and then blew out a powerful gale of wind from his lungs scattering the curtain of smoke previously clouding the air.</p><p>"John! Shayera!" Superman yelled when he saw the unconscious Green Lantern and Hawkgirl and the blood flowing from her wings.</p><p>He turned to the attacker with rage in his eyes.</p><p>"Who are you?" he shouted. "Why did you attack us?"</p><p>Once the smoke was completely scattered, the remaining 3 members of the Justice Lords, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter were able to finally see who had attacked them. In front of them, an enormous nine-tailed fox blocked the very wide boulevard below with its sheer size alone and the tips of his tails rose even higher than the skyscrapers of Metropolis City. The low growl that came from the fox next made their blood almost congeal in their veins.</p><p>On top of the gigantic crimson-red beast, a fox-masked man stood while holding a woman in his arms - it was the unconscious Diana.</p><p>"Why did <em>you</em> attack her?" Naruto asked back.</p><p>A tense silence was instilled as the three still conscious members of the Justice Lords glared at the enormous beast and the masked man standing on top of it.</p><p>"It looks like they want to have a go at it. Kurama, prepare some fire for me." Naruto said and laughed coldly.</p><p>He was too weakened to use complex nature transformation techniques like his Rasenshuriken but regular jutsu were not beyond him. It was Kyuubi that was going to provide the main firepower anyway.</p><p>He put the unconscious Diana down on Kyuubi's thick fur and his hands moved through a series of hand seals so fast that they were almost impossible to discern with the naked eye.</p><p>"Fuuton: Blazing Whirlwind!"</p><p>An enormous stream of fire was shot from the bijuu's large mouth and a vortex of pressurised wind was shot from Naruto's mouth as well.</p><p>According to the 5 elements rock-paper-scissors system, wind was weak against fire because fire fed on wind. But when these two elements were combined, an even more powerful technique would be created. The stream of fire pouring out of Kyuubi's mouth was combined with the vortex of pressurized wind coming from Naruto's lungs and a terrifying tornado of fire took birth.</p><p>The thousands of people below watched with trepidation the scene taking place above their city. The vortex of fire made the night sky appear almost as bright as the day. It engulfed the three Justice Lords, completely obscuring their silhouettes from view. The humans below could not see that Superman had tried to blow icy wind from his mouth with all his strength but his actions were no different than that of a regular person trying to extinguish a conflagration by spitting on it. His Kryptonian powers were greatly restrained by magic.</p><p>After only a few seconds, Naruto abruptly clapped his hands and the terrible wind and fire technique was instantly snuffed out, disappearing like magic. Two silhouettes collapsed to the ground with their skin and clothes burnt up. They were unconscious. The only one still flying was the other dimension Wonder Woman but she was in no better condition either. She was still standing only due to the magical nature of her abilities offering her a better degree of protection against magical attacks. Even so, she was on her last legs.</p><p>Naruto's voice came from above Kyuubi's head. Although Wonder Woman was flying at a considerable distance from them, every word spoken by Naruto was heard as well as if they were spoken right into her ears:</p><p>"I don't care about how your dimension is. I don't care what philosophy is right and what is wrong. To me, your squabbles are insignificant. However-" he said this word with a drawl, "when I was at my lowest, the Justice League offered me asylum and they even nursed me back to health. I owe them a favour."</p><p>The other dimension Wonder Woman grit her teeth in unwillingness.</p><p>"If you had not attacked us by surprise, do you think you could have gotten one over us?" she shouted at him.</p><p>A deep rumble made the skyscrapers around reverberate when laughter came from the titanic fox's mouth. Naruto chuckled as well at her words.</p><p>"Don't tell me you also want a referee and 3 judges to score our match the next time we fight?" he said in ridicule. "What is this, some play fighting exhibition?"</p><p>Saying that, Naruto's and Kyuubi's obnoxious laughter reverberated through the city.</p><p>"Seizing the opportunity to attack is a form of strength as well. You're over 3000 years old, how have you not learned that even to this day?" he said still sniggering.</p><p>Naruto moved his hands and pressurised blades of wind gathered around his body like ribbons. With a flick of his wrist, a ribbon of pressurised wind suddenly slammed into the other dimension Wonder Woman like a whip and hurled her crashing into the ground right next to the rest of the Justice Lords. Aside from her, they were all unconscious.</p><p>"I don't care how you do it, you have 4 hours to release the Justice League from wherever you're keeping them. Otherwise-" one of the sharp ribbons of wind dancing around his body suddenly extended to grab the unconscious Justice Lord Superman from the ground and yanked him up "your dear leader here will die."</p><p>The black and white costumed Superman was brought on top of Kyuubi's enormous head and thrown down not far from Diana.</p><p>"Remember," Naruto said to the other dimension Wonder Woman, "you have 4 hours. I'll wait for you here, in this city."</p><p>After saying those words, the enormous fox shrunk down in size and then, the four of them vanished into thin air.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>It was still the same night, only two hours after the Justice Lords fought against Doomsday and Naruto &amp; Kyuubi that a portal was opened in a side alley, somewhere in Metropolis. Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Green Lantern who was holding a slumbering Hawkgirl stepped out of the portal, returning to their dimension. Thanks to Flash who had managed to stop his heartbeats and fool the other dimension Batman into freeing him from his cuffs, the Justice League managed to escape from their cells. Eventually, Batman convinced his other dimension counterpart to activate the portal and let them come back to their original dimension.</p><p>"They are as strong as we are and just as smart. But they are willing to kill. They will not hold back. We can't win like that." Batman said.</p><p>"What are you saying? That we have to be willing to kill too?!" Superman shot back outraged. "I won't cross that line!"</p><p>"Then how else can we stop them?" Batman asked.</p><p>"You're the smart one, you figure it out." Superman said.</p><p>Batman narrowed his eyes in thought.</p><p>"We can't do it. Not unless we cross some kind of line too..."</p><p>But as he said those words, he suddenly got an idea. When he looked up, however, he noticed that a strange mood appeared among them.</p><p>"Am I right to guess that you're all thinking about the same thing as I do?" Batman asked.</p><p>Flash grinned.</p><p>"The alien mercenary and his fox, right? He said he owes us a favour. Just the perfect time to cash it in."</p><p>"I hate to admit it but with his help, beating back the Justice Lords doesn't seem far-fetched at all." Superman said too.</p><p>Little did the Justice League know that Naruto had already more than held his end of the bargain. The 6 of them barely stepped out of the side alley into the main street when the portal that had brought them back before was opened once again. The other dimension Batman came out of the portal hurriedly and even with the mask covering half of his face the Justice League could sense how distressed he was. Just then, the other dimension Wonder Woman also appeared from the corner of the street, dragging herself by learning on the walls of the buildings.</p><p>The other dimension Batman ran towards Wonder Woman who stumbled and fell on the ground. He wanted to roll her over but he hesitated for a moment; he did not even know where to grab her from because her arms and shoulders were covered in burns.</p><p>"Some magician with a giant beast almost killed us all," the other dimension Wonder Woman said with difficulty after Batman rolled her on her back.</p><p>The members of the Justice League looked at each other sharply at the same time. Naturally, their reactions did not escape the other dimension Batman's eyes.</p><p>"What's she talking about, do you know that guy?" he glowered at them.</p><p>"He has captured Superman. If we don't return the Justice League in 4 hours he said he'll kill him." the other dimension Wonder Woman said.</p><p>Then, her eyes closed off and she fell into a deep slumber. In her delirium, she had not even noticed the fact the Justice League she had been talking about was standing right next to her.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>When Justice Lord Superman regained his consciousness he found himself inside a spaceship. Looking around, he recognized the ship as the Javelin used by the Justice Lords.</p><p>
  <em>'Looks like the Justice League uses the same ships as we do.'</em>
</p><p>Despite the familiar surroundings, he was not mistaken by his current situation because his entire body was burning. First and second-degree burns were covering his arms and chest and even parts of his face. With his Kryptonian physiology, he could not remember when was the last time he had been hurt as badly as that. But the fox's flames were of a magical nature and they were even hotter than the sun.</p><p>
  <em>'He was a magic user. Ugh."</em>
</p><p>A groan came out of his mouth. He hated magic.</p><p>"You're awake so quickly even after an attack like that?"</p><p>Hearing that voice, his body stiffened. Following the sound, he saw a man wearing a white fox mask and a dark combat suit partially covered by a fur-collared cloak kneeling next to Diana who was lying unconscious on the floor of the ship. Justice Lord Superman instinctively tried to jump up to his feet and lunge at him but the moment he moved, an arc of electricity zapped him and his body shook uncontrollably while he cried in agonizing pain.</p><p>A chuckle came from the masked man but he did not even deign him with a glance. His hands became coated in a cyan light and he placed them on top of Diana's chest. The Mystical Palm Technique was the bread and butter of any medic shinobi in his homeworld. It was not exceedingly difficult but it was required for one to have a nigh-perfect chakra control in order to cast it. In his current condition, Naruto needed to focus more than usual to cast it properly.</p><p>"What did you do to me?" Justice Lord Superman asked through gnashed teeth.</p><p>It was Kyuubi that answered him. He was now back to his tiny form a little fox.</p><p>"Where I came from, it was called fuinjutsu. Nasty shit, I'm telling you. Even I got merc'd by fuinjutsu at some point in the past. In this world, people call it magic but it's the same thing. So pipe down and don't make a move unless you want your ass roasted. Haha!"</p><p>Superman watched for a few moments how Naruto continued to heal Diana but there were dozens of questions in his mind.</p><p>"What happened to the others? And why did you capture me? What are you planing?"</p><p>The more he spoke, the angrier he became and he unconsciously tried to move once more, only to be electrocuted and made to scream in agony again. Kyuubi snickered like a hyena at the sight of his suffering.</p><p>"Stooopid. Are you a masochist?"</p><p>Naruto's control over his Mystical Palm technique was broken when he snorted with laughter.</p><p>"Don't make me laugh, Kurama, or I can't focus. And you there, shut your piehole! No-one is dead, I only took you hostage until your pals released the rest of the Justice League." he said to Justice Lord Superman.</p><p>After that, he knelt on the floor and went back to healing Diana.</p><p>"He's gonna kill you, you know?" Kyuubi said snidely and snickered. "If your friends don't release the Justice League in 2 hours...hehe, you're as good as dead."</p><p>Naruto stopped his Mystical Palm technique again.</p><p>"Kurama, I swear to the Void..."</p><p>Luckily for Naruto, he was wearing his mask or otherwise Kyuubi would have seen the traitorous grin on his face in spite of his different words. Though Naruto wanted to concentrate on healing Diana, Kyuubi was making it very hard for him to focus. It always cracked him up to see the fox toying with his prey.</p><p>"Oh come on, what's the fun in that. Don't worry about <em>your</em> princess, she's fine." Kyuubi exhorted.</p><p>"What <em>'your', </em>she's not my princess! This dickhead hit her so hard that you'd think he was trying to kill her. I owe the Justice League a favour so I'm just making sure that she is fine!"</p><p>"Nothing more than that?" the fox said, his voice dripping with all kinds of insinuations.</p><p>"Nothing more." Naruto bit out.</p><p>Kyuubi chortled at his overreaction but he didn't press the issue.</p><p>Now that it was silence again, Naruto went back to channelling the Mystic Palm technique.</p><p>"Ya know, I've never eaten a Kryptonian before. I wonder how they taste like..." Kyuubi said after a while.</p><p>Naruto stood up in annoyance.</p><p>"Alright, that's it!" he said and grabbed Kyuubi by the scruff of his neck like one would grab a naughty cat and threw him out of the Javelin.</p><p>He was about to start casting the healing technique again but he could not help stopping in his tracks when a massive head appeared on the front window of the ship. Kyuubi had grown very large and pressed his huge head against the window of the cockpit, staring at Justice Lords Superman unblinkingly and licking his whiskers in a hungry fashion.</p><p>Naruto finally gave up. He burst into laughter.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Justice League Unlimited</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Someone told me that lobotomising someone is not actually killing them. I thought that doing that to someone would kill their personality, their inner selves, leaving only the body alive. A living body but without a mind. It looks like I was wrong about that. I messed up due to my lack of knowledge. I have edited a little the beginning of the previous chapter to correct my mistake. Thank you for the constructive criticism, RedFistCannon.</p><p>Other than that, it looks like I wasn't giggling by myself for no reason while I was writing the previous chapter. I'm glad you all found it funny too haha. Here is the new chapter, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His hands coated in a cyan light and with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, Naruto focused on speeding up Wonder Woman's recovery. Even so, he could not help letting his eyes roam over her face. Long and silky-looking raven-black locks of hair, unblemished pale-white skin, a pair of supple eyebrows, a cute and small nose, symmetrical and defined cheekbones, an oval face and a pair of luscious, plush and naturally-red lips... Naruto felt his pulse speed up when he looked at her.</p><p>
  <em>'No doubt, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.'</em>
</p><p>Feeling his chakra flow slipping out of his control, he closed his eyes and shook his head to dispel the distracting effect that her flawless beauty had on him. Resolutely, he refused to look at her face anymore and chose instead to keep his eyes locked on his hands or else he would not be able to maintain his Mystic Palm technique. But that proved to be no good either because after 2 minutes he got bored and his eyes unwittingly jumped to what could be seen beyond his hovering hands.</p><p><em>'H-Huge!' </em>was the only thing he could think about.</p><p>Before he could stop himself, his cyan-chakra coated hands lowered and lightly pressed against the large mounds of flesh below. The soft but springy sensation coming from his palms when he touched her peaks was like a small electric shock for his body. But it lasted only for a second because he quickly lifted his hands up and turned his head away, closing his eyes tightly. When he opened his eyes, however, he noticed - to his horror - that the giant fox pressing his huge head against the window of the ship had seen everything that he had done.</p><p>
  <em>'It's over. Ah, I wanna die. Kurama will never let me live it down.'</em>
</p><p>He was not allowed the luxury to even wallow in his own inner misery and prepare his heart for the aftermath because at that moment, a strangely sensual voice - in his distorted point of view - came from the woman lying below.</p><p>"Nng, why were you touching my chest?"</p><p>Naruto froze, even the chakra flow to his hands halted and the Mystic Palm technique stopped. Three infinitely long seconds passed, with Naruto just staring at her stupidly, momentarily not knowing what to say.</p><p>He dressed his voice awkwardly.</p><p>"I was, uh, healing you."</p><p>A sound between a scoff and a chuckle came from the fox outside the ship.</p><p>"That's not how the Mystic Palm Technique works. You don't need direct contact. You just wanted to feel up her big milkers and-"</p><p>"Kurama, you shut your trap!" Naruto hollered.</p><p>Understanding what was going on, a hue of pink appeared in Diana's normally pale cheeks.</p><p>"I am exhausted and far from being in my best state. It was an accident!"</p><p>Kyuubi returned to a smaller size and rushed back inside the ship very quickly, not wanting to miss out on even 1 second of fun.</p><p>"So you switched from 'I was healing her' to 'it was an accident'? Bwahahaha!" he mock-imitated Naruto's voice and then barked with laughter.</p><p>As if they could read each other's mind, in the next moment, a human-sized fox and a man lunged at each other at the same time.</p><p>It was a full-on brawl.</p><p>The two of them started rolling on the ground and clobbering each other with punches, trying to strangle the other with their hands or tails and even trying to bite each other in a mess of tails and limbs while Diana and Justice Lord Superman watched them with a blank look on their faces.</p><p>Normally, this kind of brawls ended up with Naruto getting the upper hand due to his superior hand to hand combat skills but this time it was a completely different story. Huffing and breathing out heavily, Naruto was eventually thrown flat-faced on the floor, sprawled on his stomach, while the human-sized nine-tailed fox plopped himself heavily with his butt on his back.</p><p>Triumphant laughter came from the fox:</p><p>"Wahahah! I win! Now say it! Say it!"</p><p>"Piece of shit!" Naruto cursed under his breath.</p><p>At his words, Kyuubi's size increased, suddenly becoming 400 pounds heavier.</p><p>"I give! I give up!" Naruto cried out breathlessly.</p><p>"Then say it!" Kyuubi said with a gloating voice.</p><p>"Kurama...sama."</p><p>Kyuubi's size increased once again and Naruto started tapping on the floor with his hand like the loser tapping out in a wrestling match.</p><p>"Argh! Gerroff me you fat fuck, you're gonna crush my spine!"</p><p>The huge fox brought a hand to one of his large, rabbit-like ears and sing-sang:</p><p>"I can't heeeaaar youuu!"</p><p>"Kurama-SAMA!"</p><p>When Naruto finally yelled those words, an expression as if he had just attained nirvana and ascended to heaven appeared on Kyuubi's face.</p><p>Brawling against each other without using any kind of ability or chakra-reinforcement technique was almost like a tradition for Naruto and Kyuubi. They only used their physical strength and Kyuubi adopted a size similar to Naruto. Whoever lost had to call the winner 'master' and obey his commands for a week. It was how they solved their issues and let out some steam.</p><p>Usually, it ended either in a tie or with Kyuubi outright losing because Naruto's physical strength was not any lower than his while his fighting IQ was leagues beyond that of the bijuu. Kyuubi could count on the claws of one paw the number of times he had won against Naruto over the past almost 10 years. It went without saying how frustrating that was. This time, however, by taking advantage of Naruto's weakness, the fox won. His elation was beyond words.</p><p>Justice Lord Superman was lying completely still on the floor with a seal painted on his forehead and Diana was similarly sitting on the floor while watching in stupefaction how the giant fox was crushing a screaming Naruto under the weight of his massive butt - that was the scene on which the Justice League and the other dimension Batman stumbled upon when they finally found the Javelin.</p><p>Witnessing the huge fox tormenting Naruto, an incredulous voice came from the other dimension Batman:</p><p>"That is the guy that crushed the Justice Lords?"</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>"Haa~ I'm so tired!" Naruto complained, now needing to sit and rest in his wheelchair for real. "I was still recovering but I was forced to use so much energy to fight the Justice Lords and then to heal both Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman. Ah, whatever shall I do? Only ramen can save me now. At least 49 bowls of it."</p><p>A soft hand grabbed him by one ear and twisted it slightly, enough to make him uncomfortable but not enough to cause him pain. He heard Diana's threatening voice coming from behind:</p><p>"Don't think that playing the victim will make me forget what you did."</p><p>Naruto suddenly stopped his whining and became as silent as a grave making both Diana and the fox on his shoulder giggle at his meek reaction. Deciding to figuratively pour salt on the open wound, Kyuubi said:</p><p>"Listen up, slave. Lightning Rasengan. Now."</p><p>Naruto burst with indignation:</p><p>"You asshole, I'm seriously weak now! I can't expend more chakra! Rasengans are too hard to make when I'm like this!" he yelled at him.</p><p>Kyuubi laughed uncaringly.</p><p>"For all I know, you could be faking it again. You pretended you needed a wheelchair for almost a week when you could walk around just fine. So gimme my lightning Rasengan now! Remember, you're my slave for a week. You don't wanna go back on your word, do you? Unless you want me to start talking about <em>stuff</em>? I'm sure that <em>certain </em>people would love to hear more about it."</p><p>Naruto did not need to have eyes in the back of his head to feel that Diana who was standing behind his wheelchair suddenly made a very interested face at Kyuubi's words. He ground his teeth in unwillingness but he raised his hand in defeat. A spiralling sphere of blue energy took shape in his palm and yellow arcs of lightning started to dance on its surface once he added lightning nature chakra to it too.</p><p>Not waiting for an invitation, the tiny fox stuck out his small tongue and licked at the sphere of lightning chakra. An electric current coursed through him and the crimson red fur all over his body stood straight like needles but Kyuubi let out an excited sound of delight and started taking small but quick bites off the lightning Rasengan. He had travelled the Universe from one corner to the other alongside Naruto and he had eaten countless types of dishes and the raw meat of countless creatures. However, nothing had ever come close to tasting as good to Kyuubi as Naruto's chakra. It was the ultimate delicacy.</p><p>From behind, Diana was giggling silently to herself as she watched the interactions between the two of them. She was especially amused at how the fox cub's previously fluffy nine tails looked like a hacksaw now but he still continued to eat the electrifying treat with gusto.</p><p>The other members of the Justice League that were in the Javelin were looking curiously at them, especially at Wonder Woman who was acting completely different compared to how angry and frustrated she had been a few hours before.</p><p>"Since when did she become so chummy with the two of them?" Flash asked Green Lantern and Hawkgirl who were sitting next to him.</p><p>"Something must've happened while we were captured. But the fox liked her from the beginning so I'm not that surprised. What I'm surprised about is the mercenary allowing the princess to pull on his ear like that and not saying anything back." Hawkgirl replied.</p><p>"If only the Guardians could see now who they classified as Universal-level threats..." Green Lantern trailed off, making Flash and Hawkgirl laugh.</p><p>Meanwhile, Superman and Martian Manhunter were standing close to Batman who was piloting the Javelin. Currently, they were heading back to the Watchtower.</p><p>"Can't say I'm not happy how easily we got rid of the Justice Lords. I expected a lot more struggle." Superman said.</p><p>"It looks like the mercenary really is a man of his word. He returned the favour he owed us without us asking him to do it." Martian Manhunter said and glanced back the masked Naruto who was sitting in his wheelchair and feeding Kyuubi a ball of lightning energy.</p><p>Superman nodded in agreement.</p><p>"True. And he helped Hawkgirl recover as well. By all means, she was in a hospital before that." (1)</p><p>After Naruto had confirmed that the Justice League was fine, he let go of Justice Lord Superman and freed him from the effect of his painful fuinjutsu. Then, the other dimension Batman took the rest of the Justice Lords and left, going back to their dimension. Now, the Justice League together with Naruto and Kyuubi were returning to the Watchtower.</p><p>"What's on your mind, Batman?" Superman asked when he saw him being silent.</p><p>"Wonder Woman looks different from earlier today so I'm thinking that-" he said.</p><p>"Oho, are you perhaps jealous?" Superman cut in and joked.</p><p>The only answer he got was a blank stare. The Gotham vigilante was not impressed.</p><p>"Right, who am I kidding. There's no space for human emotions in that broody heart of yours." the Man of Steel said.</p><p>"I was thinking that it's time we started our plans. Now that Wonder Woman seems to be back to normal, all 7 of us can finally make decisions together." Batman continued in his usual tone.</p><p>The Justice League did not have a ruler per se. They were a team and everyone's opinion held equal value in the eyes of the others when it came to making important decisions. Because of Wonder Woman's previous emotional instability and absent-minded behaviour, the 6 of them had been putting off their plans for the past 3 weeks - the plans of expanding the Justice League. That was a very important matter and they had not wanted to leave Wonder Woman out of it.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>A few days later, all 7 members of the Justice League were gathered together in the Watchtower. They were sitting at a table, except for Superman who was standing on his feet.</p><p>"Since we all agree that the Justice League has to expand, we need to understand the consequences of that. First of all, the United Nations will not like it, not one bit. We can expect that among the heroes that we recruit, there could also be moles from the government or from the United Nations too. Because of that, we need to be certain that we can trust each other. With everything."</p><p>Realizing what Superman's words alluded to, Flash said a bit flustered:</p><p>"Hold on a second here. What about the whole secret identity thing? I mean, I trust you guys but I'm not sure I'm ready to expose myself yet."</p><p>"You do realize that Batman and Superman already know everyone's identities, right? Probably J'onn knows it too. Moreover, the princess and I don't have a secret identity and Hawkgirl can't exactly disguise herself with her wings either." Green Lantern said.</p><p>While they were talking, Batman was the first to take the initiative and pulled off his mask.</p><p>"I'm Bruce Wayne."</p><p>Superman also took a pair of round glasses from somewhere and put them on his eyes.</p><p>"I'm Clark Kent."</p><p>"Show off!" Flash mumbled and sagged his shoulders when he heard who exactly Batman was. "I'm Wally West," he said and took off his mask too.</p><p>"Red hair. It suits you!" Wonder Woman who sat next to him said with a smile and playfully rubbed the top of his head.</p><p>Flash perked up at her words.</p><p>"You think?" he asked in a voice that betrayed how happy he felt at her compliment.</p><p>Everyone knew who Green Lantern was - John Stewart - and that was the same for Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. The three of them had never made an attempt at hiding their identities. Everyone turned to look at Hawkgirl who was the only one who had not taken off her mask. She was looking down, as though she was thinking intensely about something.</p><p>"Before I tell you who I really am, I ask you to please listen and not interrupt me until the end."</p><p>Noticing her unusual seriousness, the others piped down and focused their attention on her. Hawkgirl took off her bird mask and said:</p><p>"My name is Shayera Hol. I am a lieutenant and an espionage instructor in the Thanagrian Intergalactic Army."</p><p>Despite her request to not be interrupted, John Stewart cried out:</p><p>"You mean to say that you are a spy?!"</p><p>Similarly, Superman and Wonder Woman stood up and looked at her with serious eyes.</p><p>"Care to explain what exactly do you mean by that?" Green Lantern pressed on.</p><p>Hawkgirl continued without flinching back at his reaction.</p><p>"As a Green Lantern, you should know about the intergalactic war between the Thanagarian and Gordanian Empires. It's been going on for generations. Everywhere the Gordanians pass by, they leave only death and destruction in their wake. They kill everyone that opposes them and enslave and sell the ones that surrender. The Thanagarians are the only thing that stops them from taking over the entire galaxy. The reason why Earth, which is so close, at only 25 light-years away from the Vega Star System, had not been invaded by the Gordanians yet, is the Thanagarian fleet holding them back."</p><p>Green Lantern calmed down at her words and stood silent, listening to what she had to say.</p><p>"However, over the past few decades, the Gordanians' incursions have grown fiercer and their technology advanced in leaps and bounds due to the increasingly growing support of their old allies, the Psions. As of late, we started to lose ground. We predicted that the Earth would soon be faced with their invasion. Coming here, my mission was to ascertain the planet's defences and become familiar with the natives' culture and customs in order for the Thanagarian Army to more easily establish a military base here and halt the Gordanians' advance. To prevent the Earth from being destroyed."</p><p>A silence that one could hear a pin drop was instilled in the conference room of the Watchtower.</p><p>"You spoke of your mission using the past. Did something change or am I reading too much into it?" the ever perceptive Batman asked.</p><p>Hawkgirl confirmed his thoughts:</p><p>"Two days ago, I received a transmission from my commander. My orders have changed. I am to return to Thanagar. I did not know how to break the news to you because they were so sudden but now it looked like the perfect opportunity."</p><p>When her words finally sank in, multiple issues dawned on the others.</p><p>"You have to leave?! Then...what about us?" Green Lantern asked.</p><p>Green Lantern and Hawkgirl had never spoken outright about their relationship with the rest of the Justice League but the others were not clueless. They had long since discovered the growing affection between the two of them. They were not surprised by his question.</p><p>Shayera Hol made a conflicted expression and sighed.</p><p>"I am military. I cannot ignore the orders I have been given. You were a soldier too, John, you should know that."</p><p>Martian Manhunter spoke from the side:</p><p>"Then what about Earth? Have the Thanagarians given up on our planet and left us to fend for ourselves? We can't possibly stop an Intergalactic Empire's army alone."</p><p>The problem brought forth by the Martian alarmed the others too.</p><p>"That's not the case anymore. The mercenary Caterpillar annihilated the Psion race. Furthermore, the Gordanians have still not recovered from the shock of losing their allies like that. Our intel says that over the past 3 weeks that passed since the Psions' destruction, almost 1 million Gordanians have run away from their planet, Karna, terrified at the possibility of the mercenary coming to kill them too. The number of Gordanians deserting the army is increasing on a daily basis too. Currently, the Gordanians' ranks are in disarray. The Thanagarian army has already started winning battles on multiple fronts. Without the backing of the Psions and with the Gordanians shivering in their boots in fear of Caterpillar's retribution, they can no longer hold their own against our troops. Their defeat is only a matter of time. We will finally win this war."</p><p>The other 6 in the room were once more reminded of just who was the one living with them in the Watchtower. Watching the easy-going attitude of the mercenary as he bantered with his fox every day, they almost forgot how the two of them had destroyed a planet and how many beings they had killed only 3 weeks ago. Hawkgirl's words reminded them how terrifying the alien mercenary and his planet-busting fox were - terrifying enough to even influence the course of a generation-long war between two Intergalactic Empires.</p><p>"When I came to this planet, my intention was to just keep a professional distance from everyone. After all, despite the Thanagarians' good intentions, I was still a spy. I could never be here with you forever. I knew that when the time came, both I and the people I got close to would suffer. I knew that I will have to leave you behind someday...but I could not help becoming close to you."</p><p>As she spoke those words her voice became shaky. However, she was a tough woman and she did not cry.</p><p>"Seeing as I will not be able to continue living on Earth due to my orders, I should not take part in deciding the Justice League's future course of events. In fact, I will be leaving for Thanagar today. I have already packed all my belongings."</p><p>Saying that, she stood up from her chair and left the room.</p><p>"Shayera!" John Stewart called out and rushed out of the room after her too.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>The Justice League's meeting was unexpectedly interrupted by Hawkgirl's revelations and her decision to leave the Earth right away. However, after Hawkgirl's abrupt and swift departure, the remaining 6 came back to the conference room.</p><p>"John, do you want us to postpone this to a later date?" Superman asked in a tone of understanding.</p><p>"Don't mind me." Green Lantern said. Though he looked more taciturn than ever, his expression was composed. "Personal matters can't come before Justice League business. As Shayera said, I was a soldier too; I understand her decision. She can't disobey the orders coming from above."</p><p>Superman nodded in acknowledgement and dressed his voice.</p><p>"Though Hawkgirl leaving us is unfortunate, there is nothing we can do about it. We have to move on and work harder in order to protect our planet. And now that we know each other's identities, it's time we discuss another very important issue: funding. Not only we will need a much bigger headquarters - which will cost us dozens of millions - we will need more spaceships, specialized equipment and many other facilities, enough to accommodate dozens or maybe hundreds of heroes."</p><p>Batman said:</p><p>"As Bruce Wayne, I am a billionaire. However, I can't support all the costs by myself. Not because I can't afford it but because such a large sum of money disappearing at once without an explanation would attract too much attention and possibly expose the fact that I'm somehow connected to the Justice League. The government is most likely paying very close attention to all the wealthy people since they know that the Justice League would not be able to operate without serious financial backing."</p><p>Flash said:</p><p>"To be honest, I don't see of how much help we could be. I'm just a forensics scientist at the Central City Police Department, John is a retired soldier, Wonder Woman is an exiled princess and Martian Manhunter has no worldly possessions. We aren't poor, of course, but we are not rich either."</p><p>"What about Aquaman, have you tried to contact him? He's the King of Atlantis, he's probably even wealthier than I am if we were to count all the sunken treasures at the bottom of the oceans, treasures that only he has access to. He doesn't have to justify his expenses to anyone either." Batman suggested.</p><p>"That's a great idea. We just have to see how we can convince him to support us. I will go talk to him myself." Superman offered. "I can also provide the Justice League with highly advanced technology from Krypton and even money if it comes down to it. Over the years, I've gathered many valuable things in my Fortress of Solitude. As Clark Kent I may not be a millionaire but, as Superman, I could always get some rare space materials that NASA or other interested parties would be willing to spend a fortune for."</p><p>"I will get into contact with Green Arrow and see if he can support us as well." Batman said.</p><p>The others made a confused face. They had not heard about that name until then.</p><p>"He's a small, local vigilante operating in Star City. I can't tell you his identity without his approval first but I can tell you that he is just as rich as Batman." Superman explained.</p><p>Martian Manhunter who had been silent until then spoke:</p><p>"I have been contacted by a very wealthy man named Maxwell Lord two weeks ago too, only a few days after our clash against Uzumaki Naruto in Jump City. It was not long after Superman suggested to expand the Justice League. Maxwell Lord offered to support the Justice League financially but..."</p><p>Hearing the way Martian Manhunter trailed off made the others curious.</p><p>"But what? Is there an issue with his character?" Wonder Woman asked.</p><p>"I do not know." Martian Manhunter said.</p><p>"What do you mean?" Batman asked.</p><p>"I could not read his mind. He is a telepath, just like me."</p><p>Bruce Wayne made a thinking posture.</p><p>"I know Maxwell Lord. He's the head of Chimtech Consortium, one of the wealthiest men in the world. A rather unscrupulous businessman but nobody ever gets that rich by playing nice against the competition. Still, as far as I know, he has not broken any laws yet. He is not sided with the government either, he's rather infamous for often butting heads with them."</p><p>Flash said:</p><p>"I don't find it weird that a billionaire would offer to support us. I mean people aren't blind, they see what we have gone through to protect everyone: Darkseid attacked the Earth a few years ago, Imperium and his race almost took over the planet about a year and a half ago and then there was the Gordanian ship threatening to destroy Jump City a few weeks ago too."</p><p>Green Lantern nodded in agreement.</p><p>"True. If Maxwell Lord wants to support us, I say we go for it. We need all the help we can get."</p><p>The 6 of them continued to discuss various matters related to the Justice League's future but, at some point, the alarms of the Watchtower started to blare.</p><p>Flash was the first to arrive in the control room, just in time to see a live footage captured by one of the remote cameras placed on one of the many Justice League-owned satellites orbiting the Earth: a very large and muscular grey-skinned man with shaggy and long black hair and a horseshoe moustache was approaching the Earth while riding a space-bike. He was dressed in leather clothes and a very thick chain was wrapped around his forearm while the other end of it was tied to a large, human-sized metallic box which he dragged after the bike making sure to keep it right after the engines, seemingly with the clear intent of heating it up.</p><p>When Superman arrived in the control room as well and saw the appearance of the alien detected by the Watchtower, he frowned. .</p><p>"Lobo? What is he doing here?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In the canon, Hawkgirl did not know that her superiors wanted to take over the Earth and then destroy it by building a hyperspace gate (basically a huge wormhole). She thought that she was sent to Earth to get information for the sake of protecting the planet. She was bamboozled just like the rest of the Justice League about her higher-ups' true intentions (hence why she ended up betraying the rest of the Thanagarians).</p><p>But now, due to Naruto annihilating the Psions, the Thanagrians started to win their battles against the Gordanians. They gave up on their previous plans since now they could achieve victory through ordinary means, without the need to sacrifice billions of innocent people. Thanagarians weren't that evil, they were just willing to do anything, no matter how bad, for the greater good of their race. That said, in this story, the Thanagarians no longer have a reason to invade the Earth.</p><p>(1) Hawkgirl being wounded was omitted in the story based on the premise that my readers know what happened in the canon. But in case you don't - in the canon, Justice Lord Green Lantern blasted 'our' Hawkgirl with his power ring and injured her when the Justice League crossed to other dimension and got captured. It is something minor but I pointed it for you to not get confused.</p><p>Thank you for reading. I'm looking forward to your reviews. Cheers.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Departure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A bike burst through one of the windows of the Watchtower's control room and a terrible suction force came from the vacuum of space. Alarms rang loudly but fortunately, right after the window was shattered, a blast window lowered itself from the wall and covered the broken window, stoppING the suction from outside.</p><p>Superman was the first to react and he flew to the newcomer in anger.</p><p>"What's the meaning of this, Lobo?! You made me a promise that you'll never come to Earth and cause trouble for me or anyone else living here!"</p><p>The grey-skinned muscular alien wearing a biker outfit was none other than Lobo, the last Czarnian.</p><p>"Don't get your panties in a bunch, boy scout. I didn't come to Earth, we're still in space. And I didn't come to cause trouble, I'm here for a delivery. See? The Main Man keeps his word."</p><p>As he said that, he pulled on the chain wrapped around his forearm and a large metallic box was yanked forth and slammed on the floor. The box was metallic and large enough for a human to fit in but its walls were red, heated up almost to the point of melting.</p><p>Superman felt the beginning of a headache. The Czarnian was a pain to deal with.</p><p>"What delivery? For whom?" Green Lantern asked.</p><p>"Not for you, Green Dork. Don't pipe up."</p><p>Green Lantern was already itching for a fight; Lobo's provocation was just the perfect excuse for him to let out some of the inner anger he accumulated from Hawkgirl's apparent indifference when she left earlier that day. But Superman raised an arm and stopped him from starting a fight that they could not easily finish. He understood that the Czarnian did not come looking for trouble and that he technically had not broken his promise either.</p><p>At that moment, a masked blond man carrying a fox cub on his shoulder came through the doors of the control room.</p><p>"Sorry guys, the delivery is for me."</p><p>The previously curled up and sleeping fox cub opened his eyes and his bloodlust flooded the room. Jumping off from Naruto's shoulder, in a mere second he became so large that the 3-story tall control room could barely contain his size.</p><p>
  <em>
    <strong>"Where is the rat?"</strong>
  </em>
</p><p>His voice sounded demonic, filled with killing intent.</p><p>"What is going on? Naruto, control your fox or he might wreck the whole Watchtower if he starts to fight!" Batman said urgently.</p><p>Naruto told Kyuubi:</p><p>"Don't kill the rat right away, Kurama. I want to hear the bastard say it. I want to ask him what made him betray me after more than 20 years of working together. What gave him the courage to backstab me. He was crazy for money but not crazy enough to forfeit his life for it. He should've known that this is how it was going to end the moment he tried to get me killed."</p><p>He spoke calmly but the cold fury in his voice made even Lobo unwittingly take a step back in wariness. The current Naruto was no longer like his teenage self, someone that would just brush over people when they betrayed him or when they tried to kill him.</p><p>"I don't know what's going on, but you're not going to kill anyone under my eyes, not as long as we are here!" Superman stepped forth and said.</p><p>All of a sudden, 4 Shadow Clones appeared next to Naruto. In the split of a second, the clones performed a short sequence of hand seals and a gale of wind burst from their mouths simultaneously. It was a Wind Release technique named "Great Breakthrough". But he was not in the mood for making cool poses and shouting names of jutsu then.</p><p>From the moment the clones were summoned to the moment they cast the wind technique, barely 1 second passed. The 7 members of the Justice League were unexpectedly pushed back by the gales of wind and thrown to the opposite side of the control room. But none of them was hurt because he had never intended to hurt them in the first place, he only wanted to push them to the side.</p><p>In the next second, the 4 clones rushed out and formed a square shape with Naruto, Kyuubi. and Lobo at its centre. The four of them brought their hands together like in a prayer and then crossed their fingers. Instantly, bright purple walls of light rose from behind them from the floor until they reached the tall ceiling of the control room and encapsulated them together with their original body, Kyuubi, and Lobo in a cubic formation of light.</p><p>Unnerved by the sudden development, Lobo took a massive crowbar from his bike and narrowed his eyes.</p><p>"Don't worry. This is just a barrier to prevent the Justice League from annoying me like before." Naruto said to dispel the Czarnian's worries and then turned his head towards the Justice League who were just then standing up from the floor where the gales of wind had thrown them. He told them:</p><p>"This is the Four Corners Violet Field formation, a barrier. Unlike other barrier spells, not only that it protects the things inside it, everything that touches it will be set aflame. For your own good, don't attack it."</p><p>Unconvinced by Naruto's warning, Superman flew at him and punched the violet wall of light. The barrier trembled heavily under his powerful strike but the Kryptonian also let out a startled cry of pain when his arm was engulfed by flames. If it was regular fire, he would not bat an eye - he could even withstand the flames of the sun. Mystic energies, however, were a different thing altogether. A breath of ice blew from his mouth and his arm quickly became encased in a block of ice, snuffing out the fire before it could cause serious damage.</p><p>"Don't be careless, guys, this is a magic spell." Superman warned.</p><p>Wonder Woman could not help asking:</p><p>"Why are you so eager to attack them?"</p><p>Momentarily, the other members of the Justice League stared at her blankly.</p><p>"Neither Lobo, nor Naruto, nor Kurama are from Earth and the one who Lobo captured is not from Earth either. You're making the same mistake you made when he came for the Tamaranean girl, picking up a fight with him for no reason. He doesn't want to fight us - look, he even cast a barrier spell to keep us from interfering."</p><p>Superman clenched his hands into fists and the block of ice encasing in his right arm shattered under his strength. He understood Wonder Woman's reasoning and he logically agreed with what she said but on the other side, the idea of seeing someone get executed under his very eyes revolted him.</p><p>"You want us to just sit and watch how he kills someone?! What if he's innocent?" Flash said.</p><p>"That couldn't be farther from the truth. Naruto told me about him. His name is Rui Nak. That man used to be his information broker for years; they were partners. But Rui Nak betrayed him, sending him right into the Psions' trap who wanted to capture and dissect him. That's what led to the Psions' annihilation a few weeks ago." Wonder Woman explained.</p><p>The rest of the Justice League stopped charging at the barrier when they heard her explanation. While they were talking amongst themselves, Lobo dragged the large metallic box in front of Naruto and used the crowbar in his other hand to pry it open.</p><p>An acrid, stomach-churning smell suddenly filled the entire room and it made everyone in the Justice League cover their noses with their hands. Naruto was wearing his mask which filtered any unwelcome/harmful smells or gases so he was not affected but Kyuubi growled.</p><p><em><strong>"It smells like burnt flesh. What did you do to him?" </strong></em>the large fox's demonic voice rang.</p><p>"He's been crying like a scared school girl in my ears for hours, begging me to release him. He kinda got on my nerves so I roasted his ass a little with my engines. But I guess I cooked the rat! Ahahaha!" Lobo said and laughed boisterously.</p><p>Naruto palmed his forehead through the mask.</p><p>"You imbecile, you were supposed to bring him alive! What did you even bring him here for anymore?"</p><p>Lobo came and put an arm around Naruto's shoulder as if they were drinking buddies in a bar.</p><p>"Aw come on, goldie locks, don't be like that. You were gonna bust his head anyway so what's the big deal? Look at the good part: your fox gets to eat freshly grilled rat barbecue."</p><p>Naruto took Lobo's arm from around his shoulders and twisted it in annoyance, making Lobo cry out.</p><p>"Ow, ow, let go! What's your problem, man?"</p><p>"Watch your mouth when you talk about Kurama," Naruto said dangerously and kicked the Czarnian away from him, making him crash against the floor onto his face. "And just so you know, this doesn't count as you repaying my favour."</p><p>Lobo groaned but otherwise looked unscathed. When he heard that his debts were not cleared out, however, he bristled.</p><p>"Hey! Don't think you can swindle the Main Man! I searched for this rat for weeks and then chased after him through 3 planetary systems before I finally caught him! He was a slippery one. In my books, I've more than repaid you what I owed."</p><p>Naruto let a drawn-out sigh.</p><p>"Greatest bounty hunter my ass," he muttered under his breath. "Why did I have any expectations from him anyway. My fault for trusting an idiot. Truly, if you want something done right, do it yourself."</p><p>Lobo grinned from one ear to another when he saw Naruto not contradicting him, conveniently choosing to ignore the rest of the things he said.</p><p>"I knew we'd see eye to eye. If you need anything else, you got my number. No more freebies next time tho! The Main Man ain't doing charity no more."</p><p>With that, Lobo hopped on his space-hog and, after Naruto's clones cancelled the barrier technique, he burst through another window, causing mayhem once more as the vacuum of space started to suck out everything from the room. Fortunately, another blast window came down from the wall and replaced the other broken glass.</p><p>"Jesus Christ!" Green Lantern exclaimed when he came closer and saw the still warm and smoking half-melted corpse of the humanoid rat.</p><p>"I think I'm going to be sick." Flash said and right in the next moment, he bent down and emptied the contents of his stomach.</p><p>"What should we do with this?" Wonder Woman asked, forcing back the bile rising in her throat. It was her first time as well that she was seeing someone who died so terribly.</p><p>"Maybe your fox can eat it? Pretty sure he's eaten far worse things before." Superman said without thinking but a massive tail suddenly slammed into his face, sending him crashing through several walls towards the interior of the Watchtower.</p><p><em><strong>"How about you eat a donkey dick you piece of shit? What do you think I am? Your garbage dumpster?" </strong></em>Kyuubi shouted.</p><p>The fox was already angry at Lobo for not bringing Rui Nak alive. He had wanted to torture the rat to the death and hear him scream in agony but he was robbed of that pleasure. Superman disrespecting him like that was the last drop that spilt the glass.</p><p>When he saw the others readying themselves for a fight Naruto said:</p><p>"In all the fairness, that was a dick move from Superman. He had it coming."</p><p>"Your fox attacked Superman just because of a few words?" Green Lantern rebuked, his power ring glowing with a green light.</p><p>"How about I take a shit on the floor now and tell you in all the seriousness to eat it? You ok with that?" Naruto bit back. "Or maybe just because he looks like a fox he's lesser than a human? You're a Green Lantern. You of all people here should not discriminate. You should know that humans are just a fraction of the sentient living beings when you take the Universe at large."</p><p>"That's different!" Green Lantern tried to argue and his power ring glowed brighter. He looked ready to shoot a blast of light at any moment.</p><p><strong><em>"Shut up!" </em></strong>Naruto said in a demonic voice no different than that of the enormous fox standing next to him.</p><p>Green Lantern froze. A terrifying killing intent assaulted his senses and the green light flickering around his power ring was extinguished. Someone with a willpower as formidable as his should not lose his marbles just from someone's murderous spirit but, for some reason, his entire body became paralyzed. What he did not know was that it was not only killing intent that paralyzed him but the technique that Naruto cast it in conjunction with it. It was a jutsu used frequently by the elite shinobi back in his homeworld, the ANBU, to capture their targets when they needed them alive - Kanashibari no Jutsu.</p><p>Kyuubi reverted to his tiny form as a fox cub and blew out a sigh.</p><p>"Let is go, Naruto. I'm not angry anymore."</p><p>The fox knew that he was the blond's "Achilles' heel". Naruto always got worked up and tended to go overboard when someone treated Kyuubi like a mindless animal. The fox stopped him before someone from the Justice League said another stupid thing and aggravated him even more. They did not have a spaceship anymore to leave as they pleased and he was not in the mood to fight again against all of them either.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>"How do we always end up fighting with them?" Flash muttered after Naruto and Kyuubi left the control room. "He really doesn't stomach us, does he?"</p><p>"That creature may look like a fox from Earth, but he's not an animal. He is someone with a personality and intelligence just like the rest of us. It's not that Uzumaki Naruto doesn't stomach us but that the fox is like family to him and someone insulted him." Martian Manhunter said. "What Superman said was very rude."</p><p>"I guess it was my mistake but that was quite the overreaction," Superman said while dusting off his suit. There was not even a scratch on him. "I didn't think the fox would be so proud and react like that."</p><p>Batman suddenly called out Wonder Woman who was trying to slip away from the room unnoticed:</p><p>"Wonder Woman, where are you going?"</p><p>"I'm going to check up on those two and keep an eye on them. Someone has to make sure they don't do something crazy." she said and before Batman could add anything, she flew out of the room.</p><p>When the Amazon princess left, the 5 men looked at each other and then at the metallic box with the still warm, half-melted corpse of a humanoid rat in it. Realizing why the princess had scurried away so quickly, Batman said what was on everyone's mind at that moment:</p><p>"We were duped."</p><p>Superman said in exasperation.</p><p>"Keeping an eye on them... She left only so she wouldn't have to deal with the corpse, didn't she? Athena's Wisdom, indeed."</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Having successfully escaped from dealing with the disgusting remains of Rui Nak, Wonder Woman almost broke into a smile when she arrived in front of Naruto's room. She was about to knock on the door but she stopped when she heard a conversation coming from inside.</p><p><em>"...500 mass units of Dilustel for a clunker? The hell, why don't you just rob me already?" </em>Naruto's voice came from behind the door.</p><p><em>"Ma, ma, don't be so quick to anger, Mister Uzumaki. You've been in the business for so long, you should know how the supply and demand rule works. Certainly, in ordinary conditions, this ship would be a bit cheaper but when you consider the fact that it's on such short notice, you know, the price is bound to increase." </em>an oily voice could be heard from what Wonder Woman assumed it was Naruto's communication device.</p><p>It sounded like the voice of a merchant. The Amazon princess could automatically understand and speak any language because of Athena's blessing but she could also discern that the language spoken by the merchant was not from Earth. It was alien.</p><p>
  <em>"You call that 'a bit cheaper'? Five hundred mass units of Dilustel are worth 3 to 4 times more than that dreg you call spaceship!"<br/>
</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"As I said</em>
  <em>, on such short notice, I doubt anyone can just willy-nilly give you a better offer. If you think about it, the price isn't that unreasonable. Of course, I do have much better options available too but the price for those will increase accordingly."<br/>
</em>
</p><p><em>"No thank you. I'll buy it from someone else. Good luck with scamming other people." </em>Naruto said flatly.</p><p>
  <em>"Wait, wait, how about 450? No? 400 mass units then? This is the lowest-"</em>
</p><p>The transmission was interrupted and silence instilled in the room. <strong><br/>
</strong></p><p>"Don't wait outside, Diana, come in." Naruto called, startling her a little.</p><p>"Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Wonder Woman said when she entered his room.</p><p>It was a small room that they had transformed into a bedroom for Naruto to live in while he recovered. It was not large but it had a bed, a desk and a wardrobe too (not that he had ever used the wardrobe).</p><p>"It's okay, there was no secret."</p><p>She came behind him at the desk he was sitting. A faint but sweet fragrance entered his nostrils when she bent down over his shoulder to see what he was doing on his tablet.</p><p>"You're looking for a spaceship?" she asked when she saw several dozens of spaceship models with various prices below their pictures and lists of specifications for each of them.</p><p>Currently, Naruto was browsing a black market intergalactic portal. One could find there anything, from weapons and warships to robots, living slaves and even viruses. As long as one had the materials that the seller was willing to barter their goods for, anything could be purchased.</p><p>"Yes, I've recovered completely by now," he said.</p><p>"Ah, you're leaving already?" she asked.</p><p>He turned his chair around to look at her.</p><p>"You sound...disappointed."</p><p>He was not wearing his mask at that moment but Diana did not avoid his eyes.</p><p>"I am," she admitted, much to his surprise. "I enjoyed your company, especially over the past week."</p><p>He sat up from his chair but by doing so, he realized that they were standing too close to each other when they were both on their feet.</p><p>"It was the same for me too," Naruto said, his eyes never leaving hers.</p><p>Standing that close face-to-face with a man that she felt conscious of was a new experience for the Amazon princess. She had danced with Bruce Wayne before but his indifference had prevented the apparition of a connection between them. What she was experiencing in the present was different from anything she had been through before. The intensity of those red eyes boring into her soul brought her a funny feeling in her stomach and although they were not touching, she could feel on the skin that her armour left exposed the warmth radiating from his body.</p><p>Not doing it consciously, the tip of her tongue stuck out and wet her lips, her glistening saliva making them redder and more alluring than before. Naruto's eyes were involuntarily drawn to the motion and his blood surged to his face at the erotic sight of her moistening her lips. Her actions suddenly made him aware of his own dry lips and he could not help following her example and wetting his lips with his tongue too. Similarly, her eyes were drawn to his lips as well and when their eyes locked again, a healthy flush lighted both their faces.</p><p>The sound of swallowing came from Naruto when Diana almost imperceptibly came an inch closer and said in a whisper:</p><p>"Do you really have to leave? I would love to have the chance to know you better."</p><p>The charm of her innocent yet devilish sensuality lit a fire in him. His mind was cloudy and he felt dizzy as if he was drunk.</p><p>"Your friends don't like me." he said with the last bit of rationality he possessed, also in a whisper.</p><p>"But I do. I like you." Diana confessed and stepped even closer, their faces inches away, their noses almost touching.</p><p>His heart shook and skipped several beats. It was as though time stopped for him at that moment.</p><p>He could feel her warm breath on his lips. It tasted sweet. It made him thirsty. He craved more; if only her breath was like that then how would those ripe and inviting red lips taste like? His red eyes found her blue eyes once more. So close they were that he could see his stunned reflection in her enlarged pupils and the needy expression he wore on his face.</p><p>He wanted to kiss her so badly. He wanted nothing more than to feast on those luscious lips and squeeze her sinful body in his arms.</p><p><em>'What's stopping you from doing just that?'</em> a voice in his mind asked.</p><p>Indeed, what was stopping him? Nothing! Reaching that conclusion, time started flowing again. With one more look at her eyes, his mouth descended onto hers like lightning. For the split of a second, their first contact numbed them. But then, pleasure flooded their senses and they moaned in each other's mouth. Though it lasted for a short time, the intensity of the kiss left them breathless. Both their faces were flushed with infatuation and the tension between them was almost palpable.</p><p>This time, it was Diana who took the initiative. She brought her arms around his neck and pushed the back of his head with her hands, bringing his face closer to her. Their lips mashed against each other once more and their noses rubbed against each other with the same passion as their mouths.</p><p>His strong arms wrapped around her thin waist, closing the gap between their bodies. Her voluptuous breasts were squashed against his hard chest and the feeling of his bulge pressing against her core made her raise one of her long legs and wrap it around his waist, in an effort to press herself against him harder. She gasped in their kiss when one of his hands left the small of her back and trailed down her buttocks, his fingers greedily fondling the elastic and meaty flesh before they trailed further below to grab on the thick and muscular thigh that rose to embrace his waist.</p><p>He could not get enough of her. Her kiss tasted like nectar and her body evoked a flame in him that he had never felt before.</p><p>She could not get enough of him. The warmth and the mysterious energy seeping out of his body aroused a passion inside her that she could not control. Like a moth drawn to a flame, she approached his flame fully knowing that her passion might consume her but willing to pay the price nonetheless.</p><p>Not content with only tasting his lips, her tongue sneaked through his lips into his mouth, to meet his tongue. She had fooled around with some of her Amazon sisters a few times before, she was no stranger to kissing. Her experienced tongue wrapped around his tongue sensually and then coaxed it to enter her mouth, proceeding to suck on it greedily.</p><p>She drank his saliva, massaged his lips with hers and sucked on his tongue and he surrendered to her fully, letting her dominate his eager and inexperienced mouth. They got drunk from each other's fluids and they used their whole bodies to express their hunger, they need for each other. Repeatedly, they had to part gasping for air but they dived back every time with even more passion and hunger than before.</p><p>They lost track of time, sunken in their world of passion and pleasure. But as all good things can't last forever, their heaven was broken apart too when a very loud beeping sound came from his communication pad announcing an incoming transmission.</p><p>As if woken from a trance, as if a spell was broken, they parted once more but this time without rejoining. In the silence of the room, the beeping sounded even louder than usual but Naruto could still not let go of her, his eyes looking at her as if he wanted to burn that image in his mind for eternity. The dishevelled form of her long and silky black hair, her glistening with lust blue eyes, the rosiness in her unblemished cheeks and the erotic gasps for air and silent moans coming through those deep red and plush lips, inflated from the loving abuse he had delivered on them...</p><p>"How can someone this beautiful exist?" he exclaimed in awe as he cupped her face in his rough palms and caressed her cheeks with as much tenderness his calloused fingers were capable of.</p><p>He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against hers.</p><p>"I don't know what came over us but I don't want it to end."</p><p>Diana leaned into his touch and her eyes closed in bliss too.</p><p>"I've never felt anything like this before," she uttered in wonder. "Don't leave. No way I'm letting you go after this."</p><p>She leaned her face in and she pressed her lips against his once more. taking his breath with a passionate kiss.</p><p>The beeping coming from his communication pad stopped and the two of them continued to embrace each other in silence for a long time.</p><p>"Come with me, Diana." he said again, his hand now tenderly caressing her hair while she rested her chin on his shoulder, her head leaning against his. "The Justice League can't control me and they are afraid of what they can't control. I can't live here, like a caged beast, under their scrutiny 24/7. I can't trade off my freedom."</p><p>She raised her face from his shoulder and looked at him with pleading eyes:</p><p>"I can't leave the Earth. My mother, my sisters are here. My friends are here too. Stay with me, Naruto. I'm sure they will grow to accept you in time."</p><p>Naruto placed a kiss on her forehead and sighed deeply before breaking their hug. Diana's beautiful face became downcast and her eyes wet. She understood his answer from his actions.</p><p>He took a scroll out of his chest pocket and after pressing his palm on it, another communication pad appeared in a small plume of smoke.</p><p>"I would have been willing to make Earth my new home but the Justice League and I don't mix. We are like oil and water. Even so, that doesn't mean we can't see each other and continue to keep in touch." he said and handed her the communication pad. "Take this. It's a lightwave communication device. It ignores the space-time laws and we can talk to each other in real-time no matter where I am in the Universe. All major powers use this technology to communicate. It was produced by the gods of New Genesis. As for how it works, I have no idea. There comes a point where the lines between science and magic become very blurred. As far as I know, this technology could be very well considered magic."</p><p>Though the prospect of not being able to stay together was paining her, she smiled briefly at his words. She understood that they lived in different worlds. He was like the bird freely soaring the skies, travelling the universe, while the Justice League were like a frog trapped at the bottom of the well. They were too different; they could never see eye to eye.</p><p><em>'But there may still be a chance.' </em>Diana said to herself. <em>'Once the Justice League becomes stronger and they will no longer depend on my strength, I could join him.'</em></p><p>At the moment, she could not leave. The people of Earth needed her strength. But they still had a chance because they were both immortal. Time was not their enemy like it was for regular people. Only their feelings mattered.</p><p>"I want to come with you. I will come with you...but not now. Maybe in a few years. Will you wait for me?" Diana asked.</p><p>Naruto said categorically:</p><p>"Definitely!"</p><p>A smile of relief flashed on her face.</p><p>"Are you going to take Starfire with you too?" Diana asked out of the blue.</p><p>"Starfire, huh?" he said rhetorically.</p><p>After Koriand'r became friends with Supergirl, she changed her name to Starfire. It meant the same thing, it was just her name translated into English.</p><p>"I don't see a reason to take her. We're actually not that close, you know? She was just my bounty, someone that I had to rescue and protect. She has also found a place for herself here, hasn't she?"</p><p>Diana nodded and said:</p><p>"Yes, she's been living with Supergirl since almost two weeks ago. She started attending high school together with her and they do small-time hero work together too. They're inseparable."</p><p>"I'm glad to hear that. Poor girl has had a very rough life until now. She deserves all the happiness she can get. Come to think of it, where is Kurama?"</p><p>When Diana entered the room, Kyuubi had been on Naruto's bed, lazily chewing on some apples. The thought that Kyuubi had watched him and Diana swallowing each other's tongues for half an hour made his face become as red as the apples on the bed.</p><p>"He must've left the room a while ago. Oh my, look at that: you can blush too? How endearing." Diana said and giggled. She cupped his face with her hands to prevent him from looking away.</p><p>He brought her back into arms and embraced her tightly. Diana hugging him back just a tad tighter in response filled his heart with warmth.</p><p>"No cheating in the meantime!" she said and but did not dare to look at him. This time, it was her turn to press her head into his chest and look down for him to not see her embarrassed face.</p><p>"Wha-? What cheating? Who would even like someone with a demonic face like mine?" he said back flustered.</p><p>"I recall hearing something about the Queen of Almerac wanting your babies..."</p><p>"Kurama, that bastard!" Naruto cussed.</p><p>"Not just that! I saw the doe-eyes that Supergirl and Starfire throw at you too every time they come to the Watchtower to visit you!" she said and glared at him.</p><p>"So that's why you asked if Starfire was coming with me? You were worried?" he laughed incredulously.</p><p>She made the mistake to look up and Naruto saw her face slightly flushed in jealousy. It made him laugh at how adorable she was.</p><p>"So cute!" he said with a grin and kissed the top of her head.</p><p>He knew that if Kyuubi could see him right then he would have laughed at his shit-eating grin but he could not help it. A warrior princess over 3000 years old was acting jealous over two teenage girls. She was just too cute. That grin would not leave his face any time soon.</p><p>"If anything, I should be the one to worry that you'll forget about me and go for a more handsome man." Naruto teased.</p><p>Diana shook her head.</p><p>"Not a chance. While my civilian identity may be rather popular with men, I rarely interact with regular people. I couldn't be with one either. As for who I really am - Wonder Woman - it seems that men don't like me all that much."</p><p>Naruto looked at her strangely.</p><p>"What's with that look?"</p><p>"You're totally clueless, aren't you?" Naruto said in wonder.</p><p>A very interesting idea came to his mind and he smiled in amusement.</p><p>"Come, let's go to the conference room and access Earth's internet from the computer in there. I want to show you something."</p><p>Though a bad feeling started creeping in her heart, Wonder Woman followed him there, her hand glued to his the entire time. Asked by Naruto, she took a seat and operated the computer.</p><p>"Go to google and type in the search bar 'wonder woman hentai'. Yeah, just like that. Now go to the image section."</p><p>The mouse in her hand was suddenly crushed into a ball of plastic and metal.</p><p>"W-, What in Athena's name is this?!" she sputtered in disbelief. "I swear on the Styx, I-, I never-"</p><p>She could not even find her words. She was shocked.</p><p>"I know it's not you." he reassured her.</p><p>"Then-" she began to say agitated.</p><p>"The earthlings seem to have an unwritten rule on their internet: if something exists, there is porn for it. Give it some time and I'm sure even Kurama and I will appear drawn in some obscene postures too, soon."</p><p>Naruto had lived in the Watchtower for almost 1 month. With the help of his Shadow Clones, he had learned the English language to the point where he could understand, speak and even write it without a translating device. He still chose to use his translating device to communicate with the others though because his pronunciation and accent were a bit off, but he had become very familiar with Earth's internet during that time.</p><p>"Oh wow! Look, there is even an image of you in your new costume! You've changed your costume less than a month ago...Perverts really are fast when they put their mind to it, eh?" he said half-teasingly, half in amazement but the next moment Diana's punch blasted a hole through the computer's monitor.</p><p>He laughed out loud.</p><p>"Now, now, don't be angry. I just wanted to show you how wrong you were about men not liking you. Now you see? You're one of the most desired women on this planet. They're just scared to show it to your face."</p><p>Then, he added like it was an afterthought:</p><p>"I gotta say though, I love your new costume much more than the one you had when I came here to capture Vandal Savage 1 month ago."</p><p>Her previous anger melted like a miracle and an uncharacteristically shy expression appeared on her face.</p><p>"You think so?" she asked, secretly feeling giddy inside when she saw how his eyes roamed over her figure.</p><p>Compared to her previous costume consisting of red boots, blue briefs and a shoulderless red top, her current costume made her look more like the warrior princess that she was. She still had her golden lasso, her silver bracelets of submission and her golden tiara but the rest of her costume was different.</p><p>A white pair of skorts (a piece of clothing that looked like a skirt from outside but were pants on the inside) replaced her briefs, her red boots were replaced by a pair of knee-high golden greaves, and her red top was replaced with a white top on which a large golden owl motif extended its wings over her breasts - it was Goddess Athena's symbol. Her previously bare shoulders were covered by golden pauldrons, she wore 2 wing-like golden accessories on the sides of her face, and a white cloak covered her back, her neck, and the upper part of her chest.</p><p>"Yes, Absolutely! Compared to before, one can tell you're royalty just by looking at you." Naruto said and nodded furiously, a testament to how much he appreciated her new costume.</p><p>Wonder Woman revealed a bashful smile and looked down while playing with a strand of her long hair. Naruto discovered a hard to believe fact: Wonder Woman, a warrior princess over 3 thousand years old was weak to compliments. Not long after that, the two lovebirds became immersed in their own little world again.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Four days after the incident caused by Lobo, another spaceship was detected by the Watchtower. It was a small ship, no longer than 100 feet. There was only 1 person aboard, the pilot who came to deliver the ship to Naruto after he had bought it.</p><p>There were not many members of the Justice League present in the Watchtower at that moment because Naruto had not told them anything about his plans to leave. Besides Wonder Woman who had spent every single second of the previous 4 days together with Naruto, the only other member of the Justice League present at the tower was Martian Manhunter.</p><p>Not caring that the Martian Manhunter could see it, Diana poured her entire heart and soul in the good-bye kiss she shared with Naruto.</p><p>"Remember, whenever you want to talk, call me on my pad. And if there is anything you need my help with, I will drop everything I'm doing at that moment and rush to your side." Naruto said and then took her in his arms one more time.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>After the Earth could no longer be seen from the spaceship, Naruto sighed deeply. Though his face was covered by his white fox ANBU mask (he did not want the temporary pilot of their ship to see his appearance), Kyuubi could easily sense his feelings with his Negative Emotions Sensing.</p><p>"You don't need to feel lonely. You can come and see her any time you want."</p><p>"Mhm." Naruto made a sound of agreement.</p><p>"You know, I even think it's a good thing you didn't stay together now." Kyuubi said.</p><p>That elicited a deep inhale of breath from Naruto.</p><p>"Eh? Why do you say so? I thought you liked her?"</p><p>The fox snorted at his overly defensive reaction.</p><p>"I do like her. She is a good human. But in the last 4 days, you've been eating each other's faces up almost non-stop."</p><p>"We did not-" Naruto made a weak attempt at contradicting him but a pointed look from Kyuubi shut him up.</p><p>Maybe because it was the first time he had fallen in love for real with a woman, or maybe it was because he had repressed his feelings and biological needs as a man for decades due to his obsession with finding a way back to his homeworld - the real reason was not clear for Naruto either - but the passion he felt for Wonder Woman was like a smouldering volcano. Wonder Woman's situation was no different either after living for almost 3 millennia on Themyscira with no men around. The two of them had spent almost 100% of the last 4 days in physical contact with each other. They had not made the final step yet but other than that, they did not leave from each other's arms, much to the rest of the Justice League's chagrin since there were only 5 of them to fight against crime now that Hawkgirl's left and Wonder Woman would not leave Naruto's room.</p><p>"If your feelings for each other are real, the distance will only make your love grow stronger. But if what you feel for each other is limited to just lust and physical attraction, the distance will quickly make them die down." Kyuubi said.</p><p>"And how would you know that? You're a bijuu." Naruto said, annoyed just at the thought that what he and Wonder Woman felt for each other might not be real.</p><p>"I've seen that happen many times before with other humans. I've lived for over 1000 years and don't forget that I was sealed inside Mito and your mother for almost 80 years too. While sealed for almost 1 century there was not much left for me to do other than to observe the humans outside. I have my Negative Emotion Sensing too. I may be a bijuu but there aren't many beings that know more about human feelings and emotions than I do. I certainly know more than you do at the very least." the fox said arrogantly. "Humans are very fickle beings and their feelings and emotions are even more than so. Best friends can become enemies in an instant, despite years of friendship, and children can turn against their parents and vice-and-versa without much difficulty."</p><p>"You and Diana have met only a few weeks ago and you've been together for just 3-4 days. It's a few years too early for you to blindly put your trust in her feelings like that. Chances are that you're just lusting for each other. It's too early to tell."</p><p>Naruto let out another long sigh and gave up on arguing with the fox after hearing his explanation. He knew that when the fox was not playing around, his wisdom was league beyond his. The fox had lived 10 times as long as him. Deep inside he understood the truth in his words.</p><p>"You might be right, Kurama-sensei," he said half-seriously, half-jokingly. "I guess some time apart would serve us well, both me and Diana."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Naruto x Wonder Woman ship has officially sailed, all aboard! haha.</p><p>Wonder Woman's new costume is the one that she had worn briefly in the Justice League animated series, season 2, episode 17, at Superman's funeral after Toyman "killed" him. That white and golden armour was gorgeous, easily the best version of Wonder Woman's costume that I've ever seen.</p><p>I have set a picture of Wonder Woman's new costume as my profile picture. You can find a higher quality pic on google by searching "Wonder Woman Hereafter costume" and going to the images section. It should be the first result you see.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Prelude</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><em>"Is Naruto still in meditation?"</em> the hologram of a white and gold-armoured woman asked. It was Wonder Woman.</p><p>"Mhm, still there." answered the deep voice of a male. It came from an elephant-sized nine-tailed fox. Currently, that giant fox's large tails were stirring up gales of wind as they wagged in the air. The reason for his happiness was the still-warm carcass of an enormous beast lying at his feet. His powerful jaws were crushing through its bones and ripping entire chunks of meat from it effortlessly.</p><p><em>"Is that a dinosaur?!" </em>Wonder Woman asked startled.</p><p>Kyuubi licked a large amount of blood staining his whiskers before answering:</p><p>"No clue what a dinosaur is. But it's so tasty and it's huge!"</p><p>After that, he went back to devouring his prey. Though the beast's body was 4 times larger than his, Kyuubi needed less than 2 minutes for the rest of the dinosaur-like creature to disappear into his stomach. With his hunger satiated now, the fox became significantly more talkative.</p><p>"He might not look the part but that idiot is a Sage. Staying a few days or a week immersed in his connection with Nature is nothing much to him. In that state, his body recovers more easily, gets purified, and it becomes more attuned to natural energy."</p><p>A sound of surprise came from the hologram emitted by the drone flying next to Kyuubi.</p><p><em>"If it's so good for him, why didn't you go directly to that place and came to Earth instead?" </em>she asked curiously.</p><p>Instead of Kyuubi, it was unexpectedly someone else that replied:</p><p>"Be it pure or be it polluted, natural energy in its raw form is poisonous to humans. I don't use <em>only</em> natural energy. I combine natural energy with my own chakra to create senjutsu which is an amalgam of both. Back then, I was hurt too badly and in no condition to properly manipulate natural energy. If I had absorbed any more of it at that time, I would have died. Going to Earth seeking sanctuary was a much better option because I knew the bleeding heart of the Justice League would not turn us down if we came there while I was wounded like that. I didn't have fuel to come to this place even if I wanted anyway. This planet is extremely far away from the Vega System. It's several galaxies away."</p><p>After he said that, the newcomer revealed a smile and said teasingly:</p><p>"How are you, Diana? Do you miss me already?"</p><p>At the sight of him, Wonder Woman involuntarily mirrored his smile but she tried to say nonchalantly:</p><p>
  <em>"I'm just checking up on you to see if you're ok. It's been a week, after all."</em>
</p><p>A snort came from the huge fox behind Naruto.</p><p>"Yeah, it's been a week... As if you totally didn't call me 5 times until now, starting from the very first day."</p><p>Wonder Woman's stoic face suddenly flushed.</p><p><em>"Kurama! You said you wouldn't tell!" </em>she half-yelled in embarrassment.</p><p>Kyuubi laughed out loud at her expense, very pleased with himself.</p><p>"Haha. I'll leave you two lovebirds by yourselves," he said and left.</p><p>Meanwhile, Naruto gripped with a hand at his heart. Hearing Kyuubi saying that Diana tried to contact him 5 times already while he had been meditating filled him with warmth. The gap between how serious and stoic she was generally and how she acted when she was flustered was too much.</p><p>
  <em>'Ah, my heart! This is no good, she's cute as hell. Any more than this and I'll go back to Earth this instant.'</em>
</p><p>Even after the source of her embarrassment left, Diana's normally pale cheeks were still marred by a rosy colour.</p><p>Naruto motioned the drone to come closer to him and then sat on the grassy ground with his back leaning against the trunk of a tree.</p><p>"I missed you too." he said sincerely.</p><p>Despite that only one week passed since he left the Earth, he already missed her.</p><p>"Tell me, what have you been up to these days? Is everything alright over there?"</p><p>Gladly accepting the change in the subject of their conversation, Wonder Woman replied:</p><p>
  <em>"It became rather hectic after the Justice Lords incident. The government of the USA is now paranoid, thinking that someday the Justice League will also follow in their footsteps to assassinate the president and take over the planet. The United Nations didn't respond well to the Justice League becoming bigger either, saying that there's no reason for us to amass that much power. It's been one annoying meeting after another."</em>
</p><p>"No wonder Earth is still so backwater compared to other civilisations in the Universe. You're all so divided. So many races, religions and countries fighting against each other for their own interests. How can you progress like that?"</p><p>Wonder Woman inwardly agreed with what he said and sighed.</p><p>
  <em>"The Justice League needed to become stronger. Earth has had too many close calls. From what I heard, a few years ago Darkseid almost took over the Earth and beat up Superman very badly, almost killing him. It was only thanks to the ruler of New Genesis, the Highfather, that Earth was spared. Then, there was Imperium and its race too, about a year ago. They almost destroyed the planet. We defeated them by the skin of our teeth."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"But the funny thing is that the talk about Justice League becoming larger has not been brought up until after you came around."<br/>
</em>
</p><p>"Eh?! Why me?"</p><p>
  <em>"You gave us one more wake-up call. We were reminded once more that only 7 people are not enough to protect the Earth from invaders. That we need more strength, more manpower."</em>
</p><p>Naruto scratched his cheek, rather embarrassed about what he was about to say.</p><p>"Don't mean to brag but there aren't that many beings as powerful as I am. You can't really compare me to the average alien invaders out there."</p><p><em>"When your skin is thick enough to brag like that, why are you scratching your cheek?" </em>she said teasingly.</p><p>"Hey!"</p><p>The two of them laughed together.</p><p>
  <em>"Still, things are coming together well. We've already gotten more than 30 new members over the past week. The two girls you've saved, Starfire and Supergirl have joined the League too. Superman also roped in Aquaman too and convinced him to support it financially. We have another billionaire supporting us, Maxwell Lord, and there are 2 members among the Justice League that are very wealthy as well. So financial resources are not an issue and we get new members every day, metahumans from all over the world. We are international already. </em>
  <em>We got members not only from the USA but from Europe, India and Africa too."<br/>
</em>
</p><p>Naruto was not that familiar with the Earth's geography since, before he and Wonder Woman became lovers, he never cared about the Earth enough to study that. Nonetheless, he listened to Wonder Woman talk about what she had been up to with interest.</p><p>
  <em>"Actually, we found something interesting: Japan has created a system different from other countries. They have agencies of heroes that manage and control the metahumans willing to serve. By the way, Japan is a country in the Asian continent, with over 100 million people."</em>
</p><p>"Hee~ that sounds interesting. How does that work?" Naruto asked genuinely curious.</p><p>
  <em>"The hero agencies are regulated by the law and they pay taxes to the government too. In exchange, they can hire and manage all metahumans that are willing to serve. They still wear costumes and masks to protect their identity from the villains' retaliation, but they no longer need to have a civilian job too. Their work is considered legal now, not just a vigilante's act. They can work full time as heroes and get paid for it. The government even created a public high school for teaching metahuman kids how to be a professional hero. Everything is super organised. When I found out about their system I also realized why we've never been to Japan to help out with arresting any rogue metahumans or to assist in case of natural disasters - because they're handling it perfectly by themselves. They don't need the Justice League over there."</em>
</p><p>Like that, the two of them talked without noticing the passing of time. They realized how long they had been chatting for only when the sky started getting darker.</p><p><em>"Ah, I must've bored you talking about hero-related stuff for that long." </em>Wonder Woman said apologetically.</p><p>Naruto shook his head.</p><p>"Don't worry about it. It was kind of refreshing. I've never talked like this with a girl until I met you. You're my first girlfriend, have I told you that?"</p><p><em>"That's surprising, to say the least." </em>Wonder Woman said.</p><p>"Eh?! Why so? I've never been the most popular guy around."</p><p>
  <em>"You must be joking. You have this charm that draws people to you. Even Green Lantern, Superman, and the others, did you not notice? They were torn between liking you and wanting to chase you away due to how dangerous you are."<br/>
</em>
</p><p>Naruto chuckled at her words. He was not convinced.</p><p>"No way! Back in my homeworld, I was an outcast. It was only in the last few months during my stay there that things had started to come around for me but that's only because I literally convinced someone to bring people back to life from the dead. Until then, since Kurama was sealed inside of me, I was just the 'demon brat' in the eyes of the ordinary people while for the government of my country, I was a 'human sacrifice', a weapon of war. On my home planet, people that had demons sealed inside them were used to maintain the balance of power between the strongest 5 nations on the continent. You could say that we were the equivalent of nuclear missiles on Earth. Whoever had the strongest jinchuuriki or a higher number of them held the advantage."</p><p><em>"That's... horrible." </em>Wonder Woman said.</p><p>But he smiled. He did not seem that affected by his past anymore.</p><p>"It wasn't all that bad though. I had good times as well. And I think it's because I was a jinchuuriki that I got to meet great people too. My mentor, Jiraiya, an aunt-like figure named Tsunade and also Gaara, a friend who was just like me. Ah, that reminds me, if Jiraiya-sensei could see you, even his ghost would die of blood loss haha! He was a massive pervert. The biggest pervert I've ever met. Seeing you, especially when you were wearing your previous costume would have been fatal."</p><p>
  <em>"What's that supposed to mean?! What's wrong with the way I used to dress?!"</em>
</p><p>Naruto felt a sensation of danger but he braved in with no hesitation.</p><p>"You want the straight answer or the sensible one?" he asked and then chuckled when she saw her narrowing her eyes. "Your costume looked like something a hooker would wear."</p><p><em>"Naruto!" </em>she yelled.</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>Several hours passed and the two of them were still filled with as much energy as when they just started. By now, it was already midnight. Three moons of various sizes were shining brightly above his head.</p><p>"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto asked and directed the camera at the sky.</p><p>It was not only the three moons that were shining but the night sky was also brightly lit up by countless clusters of stars and even distant nebulas could be seen. With no artificial lights at all and with the planet's peculiar location in the universe, that night sky was something one could find on very few other planets. Violet, red, yellow, blue, and even green lights gave the night sky an otherworldly feeling.</p><p><em>"It is amazing!" </em>Wonder Woman said in genuine awe.</p><p>"I discovered this planet by accident while wandering through the boundless void outside the known Universe. I have travelled for so many years and to so many places but I have yet to see a place as beautiful as this. I named this planet Myoboku." (1)</p><p>He sighed wistfully and said:</p><p>"I wish you were here with me now to see it in person."</p><p>The two of them stood silent for a while, just watching the night sky together. Since they started their conversation several hours ago, it was the first time they were silent.</p><p>
  <em>"Say, Naruto, will you come to spend the Christmas together with me? It's a winter holiday people celebrate on Earth. Originally, it was a religious celebration but it lost its meaning with time. Now, it is mostly a holiday when people exchange gifts and spend time together with their family."</em>
</p><p>"Oh, we had something similar back in my homeworld. It was called the Rinne Festival. But I've never celebrated it before." Naruto said. His voice was a bit melancholic.</p><p><em>"I haven't celebrated the Christmas on Earth either because I only came to the Man's World last year and I didn't have anyone to celebrate it with back then." </em>Wonder Woman said. Then, she smiled and added in a soft voice:<em> "But now I have you."</em></p><p>He felt a rush of warmth in his heart at her words.</p><p>"I've never been a big fan of the holidays. To an orphan like me, it used to be the time of the year when I was the loneliest. But now I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad I met you, Diana. I am in love with you."</p><p>A hint of pink appeared in her cheeks and she smiled shyly. Unwittingly, she rolled a strand of her black long black hair around her finger. It gave her an excuse to look down and prevent him from seeing her flustered face.</p><p>"Kuhk! That gap moe will be the death of me someday." Naruto said and gripped with a hand at his chest again when he saw her reaction. She was as weak to his compliments as ever and he was as weak to her cuteness as always. They were both deadly to each other.</p><p><em>"Seriously, you haven't bothered to study the geography of Earth but you learned all kinds of degenerated things from the internet!" </em>she rebuked him but that half-annoyed, half-embarrassed expression on her face only served to make him grin wider.</p><p>"Hng, what's wrong with the internet? If there is anything great at Earth, it's the internet. I've never come across something as good as that on any other planet. I quite enjoyed it, especially the digital art with you in them. Look, I even downloaded some of them for my own use."</p><p>Then, he grabbed another device and showed her an image of her at the beach.</p><p>In that image, Wonder Woman was leaning on her elbows on the counter of a beach bar with her voluptuous breasts almost spilling out of the white bikini top she was wearing. Furthermore, her long black hair was wet, her white teeth were biting softly into her red lower lip and her eyes were looking ahead half-narrowed, seductively. Obviously, it was a fake picture; the Amazon princess had never been to a beach after she left the Island of Paradise. But Diana exploded:</p><p>
  <em>"What do you mean for 'your own use'?! Naruto! I swear to Great Athena, when I get my hands on you-"</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p><p>It was in the wee hours of the morning that Naruto and Diana finally ended their conversation. Though quite some time passed since then, he was still smiling, glowing with happiness.</p><p>
  <em>'Is this what I've been missing on for almost 100 years?'</em>
</p><p>In his obsession with finding a way back to his homeworld, he had purposely avoided unnecessary contact and personal relationships with other people. He had not wanted to become distracted from his goal. Because of that, as years passed and he watched all the death and destruction happening on a large scale across the Universe, his heart grew colder and more indifferent. He became jaded. However, in spite of that, in just a little over 1 month, that layer of stone isolating his heart from the world outside cracked.</p><p>Not knowing when or how, a black-haired warrior princess had sneaked past his defences and slipped into his heart. There were over a dozen job offers pending his answer from other information brokers that had jumped in at the chance to fill the void left by Rui Nak's death but he was in no mood to work or do anything else. Now, all he could think of was Diana.</p><p>He was still drunk with happiness from the time he spent talking with her when a loud beeping sound came from his lightwave communication device.</p><p>"Who could it be?" he wondered absent-mindedly when he did not recognize the number calling him.</p><p>Seeing as it was not Diana, he ignored it and went back to watching the sky while thinking about her. But several minutes passed and the beeping would not stop.</p><p>"Fine, goddamnit, hope their house was burning or something cuz I'll be pissed if they bother me for no reason," he muttered to himself in annoyance.</p><p>Making a clawing motion with his hand, his white fox ANBU mask materialized over his face. When he hit the accept button, it was a muscular man dressed in a red suit and wearing a winged silver helmet on his head that appeared.</p><p>"What the hell."</p><p>Though they had never met in person until then, as a well-informed intergalactic mercenary, Naruto knew that man's identity. It was none other than Orion, one of the strongest and most valiant among the New Gods of New Genesis. He was a rather famous character in the Universe for his repeated clashes with the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid. Someone like that calling him on his personal lightwave device was not something that he had seen it coming.</p><p>"I am Orion of New Genesis." the god introduced himself.</p><p>"I know who you are. What does a god need from a mortal like me?" Naruto asked.</p><p>Though his words seemed polite, the tone he spoke them with was far from that. He had no reverence for anyone that called themselves gods. Not after witnessing the terror of the void, the power of the universe. In front of something like that, even gods were little more than insects.</p><p>Whether Orion noticed his disrespectful tone or not would remain a mystery because he answered to Naruto's question without pause, right away:</p><p>"I need you to kill my father."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In case some of you do not know, Orion's father is none other than the boogeyman of the DC universe, Darkseid.</p><p>(1) It comes from Mount Myoboku which means "Mysterious Tree Mountain". He named the planet he discovered after the place where he was taught the Sage Mode by the Toads.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. A new bounty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Whether Orion noticed his disrespectful tone or not would remain a mystery because he answered to Naruto's question without pause, right away:</p>
<p>"I need you to kill my father."</p>
<p>From daydreaming happily about the girl he was in love with to being told to assassinate someone's father it was too much of a jump.</p>
<p>"I beg your pardon?"</p>
<p>Momentarily, he thought that he heard wrong.</p>
<p>"You want me to kill Highfather? I don't kill everyone, bub. Look here and read what it says."</p>
<p>Taking out one of his business cards, he pointed with this index finger at the part where it said he took assassination bounties but for "scumbags only".</p>
<p>Orion shook his head.</p>
<p>"Highfather is not my biological father. My real father is Darkseid. Previously, Apokolips and New Genesis had been locked in a war for tens of thousands of years. However, an uneasy truce was established when Darkseid and Highfather exchanged their newborn sons. Darkseid's son, me, was given to Highfather and vice and versa."</p>
<p>The terms of the non-aggression pact between the two societies of gods were not known to the general public. Naruto had not known about them until then either. The gods were generally shrouded in mystery and not much was known about them besides some of their feats. In the first place, the new gods lived in a different dimension altogether.</p>
<p>"Why ask me of all people? Better yet, why not do it yourself?"</p>
<p>Orion said bitterly:</p>
<p>"I've tried to kill Darkseid my entire life. But I couldn't. He is too powerful and always surrounded by his nigh-unbeatable army and countless Parademons. And now with the truce between Apokolips and New Genesis, invading Apokolips by myself could spark the start of a new great war. I'll never do something like that. I won't spit on Highfather's efforts to maintain the peace."</p>
<p>"But, although a mortal, you have enough power to even destroy a planet, without the use of technology. That is a feat I could never replicate. You could destroy Apokolips and Darkseid together."</p>
<p>Naruto sighed.</p>
<p>"I'm afraid I'll have to refuse this bounty."</p>
<p>Orion immediately became angry.</p>
<p>"Why?" he shouted. "Billions of innocent people were massacred by Darkseid and his army in his crusades. You have the power to end it all! Why aren't you doing anything?!"</p>
<p>In contrast, Naruto was as calm as the water of a still lake. He could not just willy nilly destroy a planet. He nearly paid with his life for amassing that much power before. His power was restricted by the environment. He grew stronger the more power he siphoned from the world. But it could also work against him like it did on the Psions' planet.</p>
<p>"There are limits to my power. There are certain conditions to be fulfilled in order for me to obtain that kind of strength. If those conditions are fulfilled, then yes, killing Darkseid, or you, or anyone really, would be like killing chickens. Otherwise, I can't defeat a god like Darkseid, to say nothing of his army and those mutated beasts you call Parademons."</p>
<p>If he were to fight anyone on Myoboku, on his untainted and pristine planet, he could stomp even on gods like they were bugs. On a planet like Apokolips, however, a wasteland of fire and smoke, he would be nowhere near that level.</p>
<p>"But even if I was strong enough to do it, I would still not accept your bounty."</p>
<p>Though Orion's head was covered by the winged silver helmet he was wearing, Naruto could discern that his face was contorted in anger. The new god had some very pronounced anger management issues.</p>
<p>"Supposedly you're a god. Don't you know how the universe works? Do you need me, a mortal, to spell it for you?"</p>
<p>Seeing Orion not replying, Naruto continued:</p>
<p>"Light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, creation and destruction. The universe cannot exist without a balance of both. No matter how much you fight against the evil, you could never eradicate it. I annihilated the Psion race almost 2 months ago. Do you think that my deed was all that great?"</p>
<p>Bitter laughter came from him.</p>
<p>"What do you mean by that?" Orion asked, this time calmer than before. Naruto's obscure words had sobered him up.</p>
<p>"I liberated the Vega System from the Psions' tyranny. That is indeed a great deed if you look at it alone. But less than 2 months passed since the Psions were killed. Wait a few more months or years and you will see: a new power of darkness will rise to take their place. Obviously, it won't be in the same place. But mark my words, in the following months or years, a new intergalactic power will appear, an intergalactic power hell-bent on conquering and destruction."</p>
<p>He raised his head and looked at the sky. The first signs of the morning started to appear at the horizon as pale orange rays of light shooed away the darkness of the night.</p>
<p>"It's almost poetic. I was like the daybreak when I brought light upon the Vega System. But while morning comes here, on the other side of the planet, evening falls. Just like that, while the Vega System was liberated, in another part of the universe, darkness will rise. This is the law of the Universe. There is always a balance between light and darkness. Once the balance tips in favour of either of the two, it will be destroyed."</p>
<p>Looking back at his device, he told Orion:</p>
<p>"Do you understand now? Even if you somehow managed to kill Darkseid, it would amount to nothing. Another one will rise to take his place. This is the truth of this world. This is the truth that I've come to know. No matter how powerful you are, no matter if you are a god or an all-powerful being: you could never extinguish evil."</p>
<p>"Then why did you annihilate the Psions if you knew another force would take their place? Why do all that if it's meaningless?" Orion countered.</p>
<p>"But it wasn't meaningless for me. The Psions wanted to capture me and make me their toy. For the universe at large, the Psions' destruction is nothing but for me it was crucial. I don't have to live my life looking over my shoulder in fear of their plots. The Psions were a powerful race, one of the most technologically-advanced races in the Universe. Having such a threat looming over my head at all times would undoubtedly spell my death eventually if I didn't do something about it."</p>
<p>"But Darkseid and I have no friction. He never acted against me, why should I take on such a dangerous job for no reason? As I said, even if Darkseid died, another God of Evil will rise in his place. There must always be a God of Evil... and don't tell me I should do it for the reward. What reward could be worth it for me to go fight against the God of Evil and his intergalactic army, by myself? That's suicide. You want me to do what you, Highfather, and your army of gods could not do even after dozens of thousands of years. Do you hear yourself?"</p>
<p>Orion became silent for a few moments. When put that way, he realized how ridiculous it sounded for him to ask of one man and a demon fox to do what he and an army of gods could not do even after thousands and thousands of years. He let out a deep sigh. He understood why would that be seen as a suicidal mission. Though they could not close the deal, he did not end the call right away and, instead, he asked a question regarding the words that the blond had told him before.</p>
<p>"If what you say about evil being indestructible is true, what is the point of fighting? What is the point of it all? With such a bleak look on life, how does one muster the will and strength to continue on living?"</p>
<p>Somehow, from offering an assassination bounty, they ended up discussing the meaning of life.</p>
<p>"You fight to achieve your goals. You may never be able to eradicate the darkness but that doesn't mean you cannot live in the light. You may never be able to protect every single being in the universe, but you could always devote yourself to protecting the ones you love and care about. You may never achieve peace in the universe at large, but you could make peace in your house, in your city, in your country, in your homeworld." Naruto said. "Life in itself has no meaning. You give your own life meaning when you find something and devote yourself to it. And that could be anything: it could be your family, it could be your job, or it could even be a hobby or a passion like music or fishing."</p>
<p>Not long after that, their conversation ended and Naruto went back to watching the sky, also thinking about the words that he had told Orion. A sudden voice came from his shoulder, startling him. Not knowing when, Kyuubi had returned at his side.</p>
<p>"So you found a new purpose in life?"</p>
<p>Previously, Naruto's reason to live, his goal, had been to find a way back to the Elemental Nations. He had devoted nearly a century of his life to it, completing over 3000 bounties and travelling through the Universe unceasingly for it. It had been more than just a goal, it had been an obsession. But, when Kyuubi gave him a wake-up call and he finally realized the futility of it all, he had been broken. He had been lost.</p>
<p>"Let me guess, it has to do with a certain warrior princess, doesn't it?" Kyuubi pressed on and chuckled.</p>
<p>Naruto flicked his snout, making the fox let out a yelp.</p>
<p>"So what if it does?" he grumbled. "Yeah, yeah, you're gonna say it's 'too early' but that's how I feel now. I can't help it, ok? I like her a lot and I'm happy. What's wrong with that?"</p>
<p>"Nothing is wrong per se but the higher the expectations, the bigger the disappointment if things fall down. So I'll say it again, it's too early."</p>
<p>Silence instilled between the two of them for a while. Eventually, Kyuubi said:</p>
<p>"Oy, how about you wipe that disgusting smile off your face and do some work?"</p>
<p>Naruto threw the fox off his shoulder in annoyance.</p>
<p>"What's wrong with my smile?" he retorted. "What's so disgusting about it?"</p>
<p>The fox snorted.</p>
<p>"Hng. That love-struck face you're making is gross. I threw up a little in my mouth."</p>
<p>Naruto stood up and started rubbing his fists.</p>
<p>"Looks like you got a lot of courage after getting a win over me on Earth while I was weakened. Come, "Kurama-sama", let's have another go at it now that I've fully recovered."</p>
<p>Kyuubi revealed a scared face and he jumped from his place as if he had springs in his legs.</p>
<p>"You won't get away!" Naruto hollered after him and threw himself into his pursuit.</p>
<p>Man and fox started shinobi-jumping at breakneck speeds through the virgin jungle, greatly startling the creatures in their way. Using his four limbs and his nine tails, Kyuubi was unsurprisingly extremely agile while in the trees, even more than Naruto.</p>
<p>"You talked the talk but you can't walk the walk, eh? Haha!" Kyuubi yelled at his back and laughed, confident that Naruto was not going to catch up to him anytime soon.</p>
<p>But the fox's laughter died in its throat when a particular dagger with an inscription written on its handle whirred by his ear, nearly nicking him. Kyuubi did not get scared by the dagger almost stabbing him but he got scared about what he knew it was going to come next: and true to his predictions, a dark-blond haired man appeared with his hand on the handle of the dagger, in mid-air, in a yellow flash of light.</p>
<p>"Cheater!" was the only thing Kyuubi had the time to yell before Naruto kicked him down from the tree like a football.</p>
<p>
  <strong>⁂</strong>
</p>
<p>"You're in an awfully good mood today," Naruto remarked.</p>
<p>"It's been quite some time since we went on a proper job, hasn't it? More than half a year. I kinda missed it." Kyuubi replied, his tails wagging happily behind him. "I wonder who are we going to kill now."</p>
<p>At his words, Naruto was surprised to realize that, indeed, they had not taken jobs like they used to ever since they rescued Superman from the Preserver's ship. He had been depressed for months after realizing that it was impossible to find a way back home. He had not taken any bounties in the meantime, just staying on his lush planet, Myoboku, doing nothing but fishing and lazying around all day long. Then, when they finally accepted a bounty, it turned out to be bogus, a trap from the Psions and Rui Nak. It was only now that they were finally going again on a proper job.</p>
<p>Naruto bonked him on the head and chuckled.</p>
<p>"We're not going to kill anyone this time. It's an espionage mission, you brute."</p>
<p>After typing a few commands to the AI of the ship to adjust their course, Naruto said:</p>
<p>"Man, I miss our old ship."</p>
<p>After Kyuubi destroyed their previous ship while trying to get rid of the Yellow Power Ring that had attempted to kidnap him, Naruto bought a new spaceship from the black market.</p>
<p>"Why? This one is capable of space-warping too and it's pretty much the same size as the other one." the fox said.</p>
<p>Naruto shook his head.</p>
<p>"It's a bit slower and it doesn't have cloaking abilities so we can't go incognito anymore. This mission would've been so much easier if we could go invisible like before."</p>
<p>They were currently in the Milky Way Galaxy, Cygnus System. The objective of their new mission was to infiltrate the habitable planets in that planetary system and gather intelligence.</p>
<p>"I say, screw the 'infiltrate' thing and just smash your way through. Who's gonna stop us?" Kyuubi said arrogantly.</p>
<p>Naruto chuckled at his words.</p>
<p>"That's what our employer wants, secrecy, that's what we have to do," he said to placate the fox. "Besides, not all things can be solved with force. Not all the time."</p>
<p>The fox sniffed but did not retort.</p>
<p>"But who would've thought the Green Lantern Corps would send us a job offer? That Green Lantern from Earth said that they named you and I *Universal-level threats*. You'd think they'd want nothing to do with the likes of us." Naruto said in wonder.</p>
<p>A few days ago, Diana called him on his lightwave device and told him that John Stewart had something very important to discuss with him. It turned out to be a job offer from the Guardians of the Universe.</p>
<p>The two members of the Green Lantern Corps assigned to watch over the Universe Sector that included the Cygnus System of the Milky Way Galaxy were suddenly killed a few weeks before. Two new Green Lanterns were assigned to that sector but they were killed shortly after that too. In total, 4 Green Lanterns died, without the Guardians even knowing the reason for their deaths. Before doing something drastic like invading the sector with a punitive force, the Guardians decided to take on a more subtle approach and use other means of obtaining some information first. The mercenary Caterpillar was, not surprisingly, their first choice. That way, not only would they protect their corps from further damage, but they would also create the opportunity to start a relationship with the powerful mercenary. Two birds, one stone.</p>
<p>Through the cockpit's window, a dark-purplish marble could be seen in the distance. It was one of the very few habitable planets in the Cygnus System, Debstam.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Unrest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Through the cockpit's window, a dark-purplish marble could be seen in the distance. It was one of the very few habitable planets in the Cygnus System, Debstam. Another short space-warp later, they got close enough to the planet that they were about to enter the exosphere. The robotic voice of their ship's AI sounded:</p><p>
  <em>"Operator, you have received a new transmission. Should I play it?"</em>
</p><p>At Naruto's confirmation, a yellow-skinned man wearing a military uniform appeared on the screen of the computer on board.</p><p>
  <em>"This planet is a restricted area. Aliens are not welcome. Return at once or we'll open fire."</em>
</p><p>Right after that, the transmission ended. It was a very blunt and short message. But only moments later, the radar detected 5 warships.</p><p>"See? That's why our previous ship was better. Scenes like this wouldn't have happened if our ship could become invisible."</p><p>The fox closed his eyes and seemingly fell asleep, ignoring him. Naruto blew out a sigh and sat up from the pilot's seat.</p><p>"I guess we'll just have to do it the hard way."</p><p>"I see you're no mood for this... Well, just stay here and protect the ship then. I'll head down alone."</p><p>Kyuubi was not exactly the biggest fan of missions that involved subtlety. He would much rather stay in the ship and have a nap than sneak around without doing anything, with no action. He was kind of hoping Naruto would run into some kind of trouble for him to have an excuse to let loose. Nevertheless, he did not take any actions to ruin his bounty on purpose. Taking control of the ship, the fox drove it away from the planet to avoid an altercation with the small fleet of patrol ships.</p><p>As for Naruto, his white ANBU fox masked covered his face and a layer of yellow-red chakra enveloped his body, turning his previously black cloak and dark combat suit into a brightly glowing golden colour. With his nine tails chakra mode, he could survive in the vacuum of space. Then, his hands went through a short sequence of hand seals and his silhouette all of a sudden disappeared. A vague distortion in the air was the only sign left of his body. It was not perfect invisibility but it was more than enough for him to infiltrate the planet undetected. It was a technique that his old mentor, Jiraiya, had created primarily to peep on women in bathhouses. Over the years, it had become a technique that Naruto relied on heavily when it came to missions that required secrecy. With his preparations ready, he exited the ship, into the Outerspace, and started flying towards the planet below.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Unsurprisingly, Naruto managed to sneak past the network of satellites surrounding the planet without being detected. He took notice though of how heavily guarded and monitored the planet was.</p><p>
  <em>'Come to think of it, Earth was the same too. Besides the Justice League's Watchtower, they had thousands of other minor satellites that one would ignore at the first glance but they were in fact all part of a bigger network. Whoever is controlling that network of satellites is a powerful man. I haven't had the chance to talk to Diana and ask her what she knows about it. I should warn her of it in case that system of satellites doesn't belong to the Justice League.' </em>
</p><p>All that Naruto could see in front of his eyes was an unending mass of grey and dark purple clouds. The entire planet was covered by this blanket of clouds, he could not see anything below. When he reached the upper limit of the troposphere (~9 miles above the ground) he instinctively reached out to make a connection with the nature of the planet to see its state.</p><p>A deep frown creased his forehead behind the mask.</p><p>
  <em>'This planet is dying.'</em>
</p><p>He sighed in sorrow. Another planet was going to be destroyed soon. Looking at the mass of dark purple clouds enveloping the planet, he wondered:</p><p>
  <em>'What did the inhabitants do to cause this apocalypse? Are they still alive?'</em>
</p><p>It did not take him long to fly past the blanket of clouds and finally, he could see the real appearance of the planet. Coincidentally, he happened to fly above an urban settlement. Or better said, what was left of it. Going by the architecture of the buildings, the infrastructure he could see at a superficial glance and the vehicles sprawled on the ground he deduced that it was a fairly advanced civilisation, above Earth. At least it used to be. Now, the great city was in ruins. When he got closer to the ground he could also see more corpses than he could count.</p><p>
  <em>'The hell happened here?'</em>
</p><p>Landing next to a dead body, he put his hand on it and closed his eyes as he cast a Diagnosis Jutsu, one of the most used techniques by the medic-nins in his homeworld. To cast the technique itself was not difficult - even a genin could do it - but to interpret the results correctly was another matter. One had to possess knowledge of the human body to accurately diagnose an illness if there was one at all. That is to say, Naruto did not possess in-depth knowledge about the human body and its inner workings. He was not a medic, he had not received any education in that direction. However, even someone like him could understand what happened.</p><p>
  <em>'Poison? Void, some madman must've released a virus and massacred the entire city. Reminds me of that intergalactic war in the Quasar Galaxy 70 years ago.' </em>
</p><p>The dead inhabitants of the city did not look like they were warmongering type - they looked like tall but thin humanoids with yellow skin and red eyes - but Naruto had learned a long time ago to not judge a book by its cover.</p><p>Putting his hands in a cross-shaped seal, 100 Shadow Clones appeared next to him in a rather large plume of smoke.</p><p>"Spread across the planet and investigate. If you find something worth reporting, you can start dispelling 1 hour from now. Otherwise, keep investigating. Scatter!"</p><p>With a yelled 'Yes Boss!' and a body flicker movement, the 100 clones vanished at the same time. As for the original body, he took flight and left the city, going towards a random direction too.</p><p>He flew for almost one thousand miles and he encountered more than 50 cities, big and small, in his path...but they were all in the same condition as the first city that he had stumbled upon. They were in ruins, with the entire population dead.</p><p>
  <em>'Was everyone the planet murdered with a biological weapon? Someone must've created this pandemic.'</em>
</p><p>Still, he could not be sure of it until he received the intel from the shadow clones that he had sent across the planet. Furthermore, he had to find the remains of the Green Lanterns as well or at least find what had caused their deaths. Although he could make hundreds of Shadow Clones, it was not exactly an easy task to finish this mission in a short time. It was similar to looking for a needle in a haystack.</p><p>After flying for a few hours, Naruto and his shadow clones had covered the bigger part of 3 out of the 5 continents of the planet. Not the wilderness or the villages/small towns but the large urban agglomerations. Now, he was at the outskirts of a small forest, sitting with his back leaning against the trunk of a tree. He was resting. Taking out his lightwave communication device, he decided to take advantage of the resting period and call his girlfriend.</p><p>"Hello?" a sleepy voice answered.</p><p>"My bad, I called you at the wrong time." Naruto said quickly and was about to terminate the call.</p><p><em>"Nng, don't worry. It's not night yet. I just fell asleep too early today. It's just 7 o'clock in the evening."</em> Diana said and rubbed at her tired eyes.</p><p>Taking a second look at her, Naruto realized that she was not in her sleeping clothes but still in her white and gold armour.</p><p>"Rough day?" he asked.</p><p><em>"You don't know half of it."</em> she said.</p><p>"Did a natural disaster happen or something like that? I thought with the Justice League having almost 100 members by now it would become easier for you to handle any situation that might arise."</p><p><em>"Ah, no, at a first glance, things are great. Much better than ever actually. But something is worrying me about the general population. I've-"</em> she hesitated a bit<em> "-taken a page out of your book and started spending some time on the internet as well."</em></p><p>Seeing a smirk appearing on his face, she added quickly:</p><p>
  <em>"Don't grin at me like that, I didn't do it for nasty reasons like you!"</em>
</p><p>Naruto laughed at her reaction.</p><p>
  <em>"No, I'm serious. I wanted to get more in touch with normal people and see what they think and how they look at things. To understand them better. On the internet, under the protection of anonymity, people are much more sincere than in reality. I've noticed a trend over the past 2 months. Something, or someone, is inciting the general opinion against the metahumans."</em>
</p><p>"I can't say I'm surprised, to be honest." Naruto replied. "Imagine you're a weak and helpless person, just trying to go to work and provide for your family, for your kids, and then one day your entire workplace disappears because Superman fought against someone and demolished 3 buildings in the process. Or imagine you made a loan to buy yourself an expensive car and paid for it with your sweat and blood and, the next day, some crazy metahuman blows it up in a fit of anger. How would you feel? To see the result of years of work and effort disappear in the blink of an eye, just like that?"</p><p>Wonder Woman was momentarily silent.</p><p>
  <em>"I understand your point. I saw many other people saying similar things on the forums. But look at the alternative: if we didn't stand up to stop the criminals, who would do it? What would happen? What's more important, some material possessions or people's lives?"</em>
</p><p>She took off the golden wing ornaments framing the sides of her face and buried her face in her palms tiredly.</p><p>
  <em>"There's no real solution to this situation. As long as conflict exists, material damages are inevitable. It feels like every day, people appreciate less and less what we do to keep them safe. No matter what we do, it's never good enough. Others say that we should just kill the criminals and put them down like rabid dogs, for good, while-"</em>
</p><p>"Are you opposed to that?" Naruto suddenly asked.</p><p>Diana shook her head slowly.</p><p>
  <em>"No. I understand that some people can't be redeemed. But nobody will ever be willing to cross that line among the Justice League. In the first place, who gives us the right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die? Once we do something like this, the government and the United Nations will finally have a pretext to openly move against us. Once that happened, it could even escalate into a civil war if worse came to worst."</em>
</p><p>"Civil war?" Naruto scoffed. "What could they do against the Justice League? You're so much more powerful than them that you can't call that a war. It would be a one-sided beatdown."</p><p>
  <em>"I don't know about that. Batman discovered signs of a secret organisation affiliated with the government of the USA recruiting metahumans for a 'suicide squad', presumably preparing to move against us if the opportunity appeared. As I said, things are becoming more hectic and complicated with every passing day. And this anti-metahuman movement gets new supporters at an alarming pace. Superman and I are having it the worst. Many people blame him for what he did a few years ago while being mind-controlled by Darkseid. As for me," (1)</em>
</p><p>"Did you do something too?"</p><p>
  <em>"Not long after I left Themyscira, one of my Amazon sisters, Arisia, started an epidemy. She used a virus that only affected men, trying to annihilate the male population. While we managed to defeat her quickly, before the epidemy could become a pandemic, there were still many men that died, especially among the elderly. People are afraid that I'm a lunatic bound to snap one day as she did." (2)</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sorry for complaining like that. I just... I just have no-one else I could talk to about these things. And I-, I work so hard! 15-20 hours a day, every day, fighting crime, saving people from burning houses, preventing accidents, arresting terrorists and patrolling the cities. It's not just me. The entire Justice League is like that. We work so hard to keep everyone safe. And at the end of the day, we get home just to hear people throw curses at us and tv show anchors mocking our names or costumes and criticising everything we do."</em>
</p><p>She quickly wiped a tear that was about to fall from the corner of her eye.</p><p>
  <em>"I'm sorry." </em>
</p><p>"Don't be. I'm here for you not just when we're joking and flirting around, but when you're sad and need to talk about your problems too." Naruto said kindly. "After I'm done with this job I promise I'll come to visit you, ok? It will do you good to have a break from all that hero-related stuff and just relax for a day or two."</p><p>She perked up at his words and her eyes brightened.</p><p><em>"Where are you now, by the way? What's your current mission?"</em> she asked.</p><p>"Didn't Green Lantern tell you?"</p><p><em>"You should know by now how he is. It's 'Green Lantern Corps business, therefore, it's classified'." </em>Diana said, mimicking John Stewart's voice.</p><p>The two of them chuckled together.</p><p>"I'm investigating the death of 4 members of the Green Lantern corps. They appear to have died in the Cygnus System, Milky Way galaxy. They want me to-"</p><p><em>"Naruto, WHAT IS THAT?! BEHIND YOU!" </em>Wonder Woman suddenly yelled, greatly startling him.</p><p>Hurriedly, he jumped up and flipped his body in the air. It was just in time to slip past a very thick vine-like tentacle that had tried to sneakily wrap around his neck. He had been so focused on his conversation with Wonder Woman that he had completely forgotten about his surroundings.</p><p>"Fuck that's gross." Naruto cursed. "Gotta hang up, Diana, talk to you later. Promise." he said and tried to end the call but a mass of vine-like tentacles soundlessly fell from the crown of the tree above, right onto the back of his head.</p><p>He fell on his knees and became immobile, the lightwave communication device falling from his hands. Only Wonder Woman's horrified voice could be heard as she called out to him desperately.</p><p>"Naruto! Wake up! NARUTO!"</p><p>A disgusting mass of tentacles covered Naruto's face and torso completely, only leaving him some space to breathe and nothing else.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>(1)(2) Superman being brainwashed by Darkseid and one of the Amazons trying to start a pandemic and murder all men on the planet are canon in the animated series.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. A perfect world</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A yawn came from his mouth and he tried to raise his arms and stretch but he realized that he could not move one of them. Turning his head to see what was wrong, he realized why: a woman was sleeping with her head on his arm. He smiled as he brought a hand to her face and moved a lock of her black hair behind her ear. When he tenderly caressed her soft cheek with his thumb, her eyelids raised, revealing her baby blue eyes.</p><p>"Morning." he said.</p><p>In response, the woman rolled on top of him and straddled his midsection.</p><p>"Morning." she said too and pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss.</p><p>Then, she laid on top of him, with her head on his chest, right below his chin. He brought his arms around her back and hugged her dearly. They had been together for more than a decade but they had never gotten tired of each other. If anything, their love deepened with every passing day. Just cuddling like that in the morning brought them a feeling of fulfilment and peace.</p><p>"Little Thea woke up." Naruto said when his sensitive ears caught a particular sound coming from outside their bedroom.</p><p>"Watch: any moment now, she'll come bursting into our bedroom like a small hurricane." the woman in his arms laughed softly and said.</p><p>He too chuckled because, as on cue, their bedroom's door was abruptly opened and a young girl about 12 years old burst in full of energy.</p><p>"Mom! Dad! Wake up! Today is my graduation!" she yelled in excitement.</p><p>The little girl was a carbon-copy of her mother. Long and straight black hair, fair skin and a pair of blue eyes sparkling with mischief.</p><p>"You little monkey, it's still too early for you to be so rowdy!" Naruto lightly admonished but the girl just grinned in reply. She suddenly took flight and plopped herself on top of her parents.</p><p>Delightful laughter came from her when her mother started play fighting against her for who was allowed to monopolize Naruto. He could only smile widely at the sight of his wife and daughter. Eventually, however, little Thea rolled to the side exhausted, glaring at her victorious-looking mother.</p><p>"You'll see, I'll definitely defeat you one day! I'll defeat you and take daddy all for myself!"</p><p>Diana pinched her daughter's nose and giggled.</p><p>"You're still a few centuries too young for that. Now shoo and go take a shower. I'll make breakfast for you."</p><p>The young girl winced.</p><p>"Hey! What's with that reaction!" Diana said, her face aggrieved.</p><p>"It's alright, I'll prepare breakfast today." Naruto offered.</p><p>"Yay!" Thea said and pumped her fist in the air before quickly flying away from the room.</p><p>"Thea! No flying in the house!" Diana yelled after her but the little girl was long gone.</p><p>She made a depressed face.</p><p>"Is my cooking really that bad?" she asked after Thea left.</p><p>Naruto chuckled and kissed her on the forehead.</p><p>"We all have things we're good at and things we can't do. It's proof that we're still human."</p><p>Then, he stood up from the bed and unexpectedly swept her off her feet, taking her in his arms in a princess carry. She let out a small shriek of delight and she brought her arms around his neck. That morning, the couple needed a longer than usual time when they showered together.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"I'm finally a full-fledged kunoichi! I got a great team too! I'm together with Uchiha Sarada and Sabaku Shinki! We're going to be the strongest team of genin ever! Even stronger than you and your team!" Thea proclaimed full of conviction.</p><p>"I'm sure you will." Naruto said and patted her on the head, ruffling her hair and making her swat his hand away in annoyance.</p><p>"Dad! I told you to not touch my hair! A woman's hair is her life!"</p><p>A young boy wearing red war paint on his face sneered from the side:</p><p>"A shinobi will never go far when they care that much about their appearance. Look at Sarada: she's a true Kunoichi. She doesn't care about her looks-"</p><p>But his survival instincts kicked in and he suddenly broke into a sprint, both Thea and Sarada hot on his tail, intent on beating him up.</p><p>"They're as full of energy as ever, aren't they?" a red-haired man in his late thirties said from the side.</p><p>It was Gaara. He had been the Kazekage of Sunagakure for almost 10 years before he finally decided to retire. Upon passing the mantle to his successor, he moved to Konoha to be closer to Naruto and to his sister, Temari, who had married and moved away to Konoha many years before. Only Kankuro remained behind, acting as the new Kazekage's right-hand man.</p><p>Naruto and Gaara clasped their hands in a strong handshake.</p><p>"Are you free today?" Diana asked. "We decided to have a little party together with Sakura and Sasuke. You're more than welcome to join us."</p><p>Gaara looked pleasantly surprised.</p><p>"Definitely!"</p><p>"Erm, initially it was supposed to be a small party but somehow my mother found out about it. Now, besides us, the parents of the 3 genins, there are many more. There's also mom, dad, Sandaime, Tsunade-baa-chan and Ero-sennin too. My mother in law will certainly not miss out on the opportunity either. Also, Kurama will be there too, of course." Naruto said apologetically but Gaara only smiled. Naruto was his first friend, the person that had saved him from his darkness. Not just that, he even came after him to save his life when he got captured by the Akatsuki. Gaara cared about him just as much as he cared about his two siblings and his adopted son, Shinki.</p><p>⁂</p><p>It was late in the evening. The moon was already shining brightly in the sky but that did not diminish the excitement and joy of the party taking place in the courtyard of the manor owned by the former Fourth Hokage and his wife.</p><p>"Jiraiya-sensei still hasn't given up on wooing Tsunade-sama even after all these years." a 50-something years old Namikaze Minato said and chuckled as he watched the Toad Sage making doe eyes at a cold-looking Slug Princess.</p><p>At his side, a 90-year-old Sarutobi Hiruzen poured himself a cup of sake and let out a warm smile.</p><p>"Youth comes from the heart. Jiraiya will always be a young man in that regard. I have to say, though, Minato, I'm quite surprised by your son. I never thought he would turn down the position of Hokage."</p><p>Minato shrugged his shoulders helplessly.</p><p>"I know, right? As he grew up he drove everyone crazy with his<em> 'I'm going to be the Hokage one day'</em> lines."</p><p>Naruto suddenly came from behind them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders.</p><p>"You two old men wouldn't happen to be gossiping about me like a pair of old women, right?"</p><p>The three of them shared a laugh together. Naruto also poured himself some sake and drank it all in a gulp.</p><p>"After I grew up, I realized that being the Hokage is far less exciting than I thought at first. You spend 99% of your time buried under paperwork. I chose to focus more on my family rather than on a boring career."</p><p>"See? Your son is smarter than you, Minato." a red-haired woman in her 50s said half-seriously, half-jokingly from the side. Despite her age, her hair was still very long and crimson-red and, although time had left some marks on her face, it could be seen that she had been a very beautiful woman in the past. She was Naruto's mother, Kushina Uzumaki.</p><p>"You're absolutely right, Kushina." Minato said meekly, making both Naruto and Sarutobi laugh out loud.</p><p>"The leadership of the village is in good hands. Kakashi-sensei is a dependable man. He's a much better fit as a Hokage than I am." Naruto said. "Besides, there are no more wars among the 5 great nations. Ever since we sealed Kaguya, we've been living in an era of peace."</p><p>His heart was filled with content and with happiness whenever he looked at his wife and daughter. Furthermore, he could live his days in peace together with his parents, his grandfather-figure, Sarutobi Hiruzen, his auntie Tsunade, his perverted mentor, Jiraiya, and his best friends, Gaara and Sasuke. Diana was happier too, no longer stressed and tormented by responsibilities and she could live together with her mother too, away from the oppression of the Olympian gods. What more could he ask from life?</p><p><em>'This is paradise.' </em> he thought as he watched everyone around him having a good time.</p><p>Sasuke and Gaara were playing a game of shogi, Jiraiya was trying to flirt with Tsunade, Sakura and Diana were chatting together with Hippolyta and the three genin were having a mock fight against a bear-sized nine-tailed fox while Naruto, his parents, and Sandaime were having a drink.</p><p>But at that moment, he suddenly winced in pain as a strong migraine assaulted his brain. He dropped his cup of sake, spilling it all over his clothes.</p><p>"Naru-chan, are you okay?" Kushina asked suddenly worried.</p><p>Naruto did not reply. In his mind, a rush of memories invaded his thoughts. It was exactly what happened when his shadow clones dispelled and he received their memories. But he could not remember ever making a shadow clone that day, let alone so many shadow clones that they would cause him a migraine by dispelling all at once.</p><p>In his mind, he could now see a dying planet with a race of yellow-skinned humanoids, all dead. Ruined cities, a destroyed nature and a sky covered by a thick curtain of dark purple clouds.</p><p>"Nothing to worry about." Naruto replied eventually. "I'll go to the bathroom to get myself cleaned up."</p><p>He almost ran to the bathroom and splashed with cold water over his face. But when he looked in the mirror, he was startled. His hands involuntarily rose to touch his own face, tracing his whisker-like marks with his fingers.</p><p>"This isn't right. What is going on?"</p><p>The image he could see in the mirror was different from what he remembered. His reflection had bright golden hair, blue eyes and very thin whisker-like birthmarks.</p><p>
  <em>'I used to look like that. But that was before I unsealed Kurama from my body.'</em>
</p><p>He remembered that after unsealing Kyuubi, the part of the bijuu that been left inside of his body had fused with him which resulted in his eyes become red and slit, like that of a fox, his golden hair darkened to the point where it became a strawberry blond and the marks on his face had become much thicker and darker.</p><p>At that moment, he suddenly heard a chorus of cries coming from the courtyard. He got outside the house just in time to see the bright moon in the sky suddenly crack and shatter!</p><p>"No! This can't be happening!" he shouted, his face livid.</p><p>A massive rip in the space appeared above the courtyard.</p><p>A pale-white woman with horns on her head and long white hair stepped out of the rift. Her pupilless white eyes stared at the people below with hatred. She raised her hands and said:</p><p>"All-Killing Ash Bones."</p><p>Time seemed to slow down to a crawl but despite his heightened senses and superhuman powers, Naruto found himself unable to react. Under his horrified eyes, he watched how bone spikes shot from the Rabbit Goddess' arms, impaling everyone below.</p><p>To this day, it was still the deadliest technique that Naruto had ever witnessed in his long life. The moment that the bone spikes touched someone, their body crumbled into ash. They did not have time to even scream. He could only watch in terror how his daughter perished, turned into ash and scattered in the wind by the first wave of attacks.</p><p>His body immediately burst with a brilliance of golden light and 10 Truth Seeking Orbs appeared at his back. Enraged, he lunged at Kaguya screaming like possessed but a rift appeared in the space, right in front of him, and teleported him to several miles away.</p><p>He teleported back right away but he fell on his knees in despair at the sight that greeted his eyes: all that remained of his loved ones were just a few mounds of ash. His wife, his daughter, his parents, his best friends, his sensei, his auntie - everyone was dead.</p><p>The moment that the rush of memories from his Shadow Clones had invaded his brain, Naruto realized that what he was experiencing at that moment was only an illusion. His parents had died a very long time ago, the day he was born. Sandaime Hokage was assassinated by Orochimaru when he was a genin and his sensei, Jiraiya, was killed by Pain when he was 16. There was no way for them to be alive then.</p><p>However, even despite knowing that in the depths of his heart, the pain he felt at that moment was not an illusion. Watching everyone he had ever loved die once more messed him up. In particular, his daughter's death hit him so hard that he felt physically ill.</p><p>⁂</p><p>A powerful hand suddenly clenched on a mass of vine-like tentacles. Something like a shriek of pain came from the plant when it was abruptly yanked from the host that it had preyed upon. Its tentacles struggled to wrap around the arm that had grabbed it, trying to get back and possess his body but with a squeeze of his fingers, the tentacle plant was squashed into a paste of green blood.</p><p>Naruto was still on his knees, his body shivering all over. His face was livid and his eyes were haunted. Everything had been just an illusion. But what he had felt in that illusion had been real. His love for Diana and his daughter, Thea, his feelings for his parents and the despair at watching everyone else die - they were like a molten hot rod piercing through his heart.</p><p>As he stood on all fours, on his knees, the nails on his fingers started to grow and turned into claws, digging into the soil beneath. His strawberry-blond hair turned blood red and a haze of red and yellow chakra started seeping out of his body. But he reigned his chakra back in. He was silent. There were no explosions of chakra, no crazy displays of power. But under his cold fury, all living beings in the vicinity became mute. Even the wind came to a standstill.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As some of you have already guessed in the reviews, what had taken advantage of Naruto's carelessness was a Black Mercy. You can read more about it on wiki. Yes, it is canon. Looking forward to your reviews.</p><p>PS: Thea is short for Athena.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Massacre</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a dark chapter. You might as well skip it if you're squeamish. You can guess what happens from the title.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was an enormous hall. He could barely make out its outer walls but he could not see the ceiling. There were no windows and there were no lights either. Though he could not see his hand in front of his face, he could hear the collective breathing of a large group of living beings. Through his Sage senses, he could feel there were thousands of them gathered in the hall.</p><p>An orange-red flame bloomed in the palm of his hand. When his surroundings were revealed, he paled.</p><p>Thousands of yellow-skinned humanoid beings were hanging from the ceiling in translucent fleshy cocoons. Tentacle-like plants, just like the one that had got the drop on him a few hours before, were wrapped around each of those Debstam inhabitants' neck, torso or face. It was a giant hive.</p><p>
  <em>'It's just like back then.'</em>
</p><p>He was reminded of how the God Tree had captured the entirety of the Elemental Nations, every living being, and encased them in cocoons, putting them into an eternal slumber. Just like the tentacle plants were doing to their victims. Each one of them was experiencing something no different than the Infinite Tsukuyomi that Madara had cast back in his homeworld.</p><p>Sounds of teeth-gnashing came from him and his face became livid. A rage that his hands started shaking came over him. Veins were pulsating on his temples and his breathing came out in gasps. He was hyperventilating.</p><p>It was at that time that the sound of people talking reached his ears. His wildly beating heart slowed down and he got a hold of his violent emotions. But his red, slit eyes shone with ferocity.</p><p>
  <em>'Whoever did this. I'll rip them to shreds. I'll-, I'll-" </em>
</p><p>He could not continue that thought. Just thinking about it made him see red in front of his eyes.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"How are the tests going?" A massive humanoid being asked. He was bald, his skin was a dirty yellow colour and his eyes were completely red. His skin-tight purple costume showed off his incredibly muscular physique.</p><p>"We have successfully modified the genetic data of the Black Mercy." a man similar in stature and appearance to him answered. They looked like they were related. The difference came mostly in the outfit he was wearing: a blue and dark pink costume with a bright yellow symbol on his chest. It was none other than the Yellow Lantern Corps' symbol.</p><p>"Previously, Black Mercy would have offered its victims a painless death, giving them the perfect life they've always dreamed of. However, I changed it. My yellow power ring gave me new insights that I have never thought about before. I made it so after tasting the sweetness of their version of Paradise, their greatest fears would come to life. The emotional trauma would increase the speed at which the Black Mercy feeds on their psychic energy, eventually draining all the vitality from their body. The victims would die an agonizing death, worse than any physical torture could ever bring them."</p><p>The two muscular yellow-skinned humanoids were none other than Mongul and his son who carried the same name as him, Mongul the Younger.</p><p>A cruel smile appeared on Mongul's face.</p><p>"Good. Good." he said, repeating himself. "They took Warworld from me. That lowly slave, Draga, that Kryptonian and the Justice League, I will pay them back for that humiliation tenfold. How sweet it will be to see them all bent on their knees in front of me, begging me to kill them."</p><p>He broke into laughter. Similarly, Mongul the Younger laughed along with him.</p><p>"What about our other project?" Mongul asked.</p><p>"My sister is dealing with it. Our fleet is almost ready. We are missing some personnel though. We have killed too many in the last pandemic. But they're just rubble. We could always get more slaves from another planet. Fear will keep them in line." his son replied and raised his fist to look at the Yellow Power Ring on his middle finger.</p><p>A human-looking man appeared on the illuminated platform that the son and father tyrants had been conversing on before. A fur-collared black cloak, crimson red hair, slit red eyes and dark, thick whisker-like marks on his face. It was none other than Naruto.</p><p>"Who are you?" Mongul asked, alerted by his unexpected arrival.</p><p>Instinctively, Mongul Jr instantly conjured a sphere of yellow light around himself and his father. It was just in time to meet the newcomer's punch.</p><p>
  <strong>
    <em>*bang*</em>
  </strong>
</p><p>The sound of glass shattering was heard and the yellow construct of light was smashed into shards of light, with Mongul and Mongul Jr being violently thrown off the platform.</p><p>"It was you!" Naruto screamed.</p><p>The father and son duo quickly rose to their feet but two hands suddenly smashed into their faces and grabbed them both by the head in a vice-like grip. Holding them by their face, he ran with them and smashed their heads into the thick outer walls of the hall, creating a large hole in it and then jumped with them outside.</p><p>A bolt of yellow light shot from Mongul Jr's power ring and exploded right into Naruto's chest, blasting him away from them and making him lose his grip on their faces.</p><p>"Who the hell are you?" Mongul Jr screamed. Five bloodied marks were left on his face from how hard Naruto's fingers had dug into his skin.</p><p>Naruto looked at the bleeding bruise left by the blast of yellow light on his chest. It had destroyed his cloak and combat suit and scrapped his skin, almost revealing the ribs below.</p><p>A deranged grin appeared on his face.</p><p>He launched himself at them again and his fist smashed against the new sphere of yellow light that Mongul Jr had conjured with his power ring. The construct of light once more could not resist even one of his punches and shattered in a spectacle of lights. But Mongul the older threw an explosive punch at Naruto, striking him in the face. The blow threw him back almost like a cannonball, destroying dozens of tree trunks and creating a line of broken trees in the dense jungle around the hall hosting the Hive.</p><p>"Guards! What the hell are you doing!?" Mongul screamed and, at his call, dozens upon dozens of tall and thin yellow-skinned humanoids came from the large hall carrying blasters and plasma swords with them.</p><p>Naruto sat up from the crater he had been smashed into like a zombie. He laughed. It was a screamed, insane laughter. He sprang from his place, making a beeline towards Mongul and his son once more.</p><p>Mongul the Younger conjured a construct of yellow light in the form of a cannon barrel and an enormous blast of light impacted Naruto and exploded in a shower of light along with his blood. But Naruto only laughed, a mad look in his eyes. Laser beams were shot by the henchmen of Mongul and a part of them also closed in, slashing at him with their plasma swords.</p><p>He ignored them all and launched himself at Mongul and his son again. Bloodlust was rolling off of him in waves.</p><p>"What the hell is your problem? What do you want?!" Mongul screamed, inwardly starting to feel afraid. Despite having a Yellow Lantern in his son and an army at his side, an impending feeling of death seemed to loom over him. It filled him with trepidation.</p><p>Naruto suddenly disappeared, greatly alarming the two Mongul and the army of henchmen around them. Mongul suddenly felt his breath leaving his lungs and his feet leaving the ground. Mongul Jr could only watch as their enemy's lariat almost beheaded his father and hurled him into the distance spinning like a top. A huge hatchet of yellow light came from his power ring and slashed at Naruto's back opening up a wound gushing with blood.</p><p>"Fucking animal!" Mongul Jr screamed and raised his hatchet of yellow light to hack down once more but Naruto teleported right in front of his face and grabbed him in a painful chokehold with a hand and slammed him into the ground. The ground shattered and an immense crater was formed.</p><p>He raised his other arm and a long dagger appeared in it before he stabbed into Mongul Jr's hand, the hand holding the Yellow Power ring. A howl of pain came from Mongul Jr. But only moments later, Naruto also screamed...with laughter. The plasma sword of one of the henchmen had impaled him through the chest, from the back. Blood spurted from his mouth as one of his lungs was perforated and burnt off by the heat sword. It was as if he did not even register the pain. Or more, like he took pleasure in it.</p><p>A backhanded slap at his back made the henchman that had stabbed him through with his plasma sword burst into a shower of gore and blood. The rest of the henchmen holding swords immediately drew away in terror but death reaped their lives before they knew it as a forest of stone spikes abruptly burst from the ground below their feet. Dozens of henchmen were slaughtered in the blink of an eye, their death throes cries a macabre symphony of death.</p><p>The grievous wounds that he had received began to heal like a miracle, even the burnt and cauterized hole in his chest closed up. If it was not for his ruined combat suit, one would not believe he had been mortally wounded just a few moments before.</p><p>The deranged smile slowly receded from his face. The glimmer of insanity in his red eyes subsided. His rage was nowhere near abated though. His hand wrapped in a transparent blade of wind, he slashed at Mongul Jr's arm, severing it from the elbow along with his Yellow Power ring.</p><p>A scream of despair and pain came from the Yellow Lantern. His massive body convulsed violently and he punched and kicked with his remaining limbs in desperation but the previously seemingly vulnerable body of Naruto was now like steel, Mongul Jr's powerful hits not even causing a bruise. Naruto's vice-like grip on his neck was unshakeable. He started to drag the massive body of Mongul Jr after him, towards the place where Mongul the father lay after the lariat to the neck had almost taken his life.</p><p>Mongul the father tried to stand to his feet but he could not muster any strength. To his horror, he realized that he could not feel his body from the neck below. Naruto's lariat had paralyzed him.</p><p>A sound of slow footsteps reached his ears, every stomp on the ground sounding like the limbs of a watch measuring the remaining time from his life.</p><p>"Why are you doing this?! How have I wronged you! I've never even seen you in my life!" Mongul screamed when Naruto came in his sight, dragging his son by the neck.</p><p>Naruto threw Mongul Jr to the ground roughly. The yellow lantern scrambled to get up as quickly as he could but a blade of lightning pierced through his thigh, pinning him to the ground.</p><p>"Tell me why are you doing this! Why are you killing us?!" Mongul Jr also screamed in desperation.</p><p>Normally, it was he who brought despair onto others. He was chosen as a Yellow Lantern for a reason. Mongul Jr had obtained his Yellow Power ring by killing its previous owner. But now, he was the one tasting what fear and despair felt like.</p><p>Naruto spoke to Mongul the father who was paralyzed on the ground.</p><p>"You gave me everything. And then you took it away. My parents, my mentor, my wife, my daughter, my family. I watched them all die in front of my eyes. I'm going to do the same for you."</p><p>Two shadow clones appeared next to him and they went to the paralyzed Mongul. They grabbed him roughly by the head and their fingers pried his eyes wide open, making it impossible for him to close his eyes or look away.</p><p>"It's insurance. To make sure you'll watch every single moment of how I'm going to torture your son to death."</p><p>⁂</p><p>It was carnage. Dozens of yellow-skinned soldiers were impaled on gigantic spikes of stone, their blood making a river below. Mongul and Mongul Jr were unrecognizable. Dismembered, their eyes gouged out and chunks of flesh ripped out of their bodies or incinerated.</p><p>Even then, the massacre was not over. Hours later, several hundred corpses littered Mongul's military base. Every single one of his henchmen was killed. The only people left alive were the ones being held by the Hive of Black Mercy organisms.</p><p>Naruto laid on a boulder with his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his palms.</p><p>Until the illusion of Black Mercy, he had never seen his loved ones actually die. He had not seen his mother and father die, he had not witnessed Sandaime Hokage's assassination and he had not seen his mentor's death at the hands of Pain either.</p><p>The first time that he saw someone apparently die was when he thought that Hinata was killed and he went berserk to the point that Kyuubi took over him and broke the seal. The second time was when Neji sacrificed himself to protect Hinata during the war. But Naruto had not been particularly close to either Neji or Hinata. They had been just friends, just two of the large group of people that he viewed as friends.</p><p>"Ero-sennin. Baa-chan. Jiji."</p><p>Only now, when it was all over and his rage had died down, grief surfaced. Heavy and bitter tears started rolling down his scarred cheeks as he said their names.</p><p>"Kaa-chan. Tou-san. Thea. Diana."</p><p>He knew it had been only an illusion. However, while only a few hours passed in reality, he had lived for more than 10 years inside the dream given to him by the Black Mercy. His feelings for everyone there had been real.</p><p>Surrounded by piles of corpses from all sides and a thick scent of blood staining the air, he cried alone for a long time.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Great Athena! You are okay!" was the first thing Diana exclaimed when her lightwave device rang and she answered the incoming call.</p><p>On the other side of the videocall was Naruto.</p><p>"When that thing grabbed you, I-, I thought the worst! I-,"</p><p>She stopped to recollect herself and get a hold of her growing anxiety. But she realized that Naruto was eerily silent. Furthermore, he was wearing his white fox mask as well - something that he never did while talking to her.</p><p><em>"It's good to see you, Diana."</em> Naruto said eventually, his voice choked with untold emotions.</p><p>He could feel that Wonder Woman wanted to ask what was wrong with him but he did not trust himself to not break if he talked about it with her then. So he said to quickly change the subject:</p><p>
  <em>"Where are you? Can you reach out to Green Lantern?"</em>
</p><p>Wonder Woman naturally noticed his actions. Though she was dying to make sure that he was alright, she stopped her urges to press him for more information.</p><p>"Green Lantern is with me. Flash, Starfire and Supergirl are with me too. We are in the middle of a space-warp. We should arrive in the Cygnus constellation in a matter of minutes."</p><p>Anticipating his question, she explained:</p><p>"When you were attacked and fell unconscious I feared the worst. I-"</p><p>Flash all of a sudden butted in the frame, and said:</p><p>"She was so worried that she ran straight to J'onn and asked him how to get to the Cygnus System. We didn't even know where that was at first."</p><p>Flash was pushed out of the frame and 2 girls, a blonde and a redhead, popped in instead.</p><p>"We had to ask Batman to hack this thing and then Doctor Fate to trace your location. You caused us so much trouble, honestly!" Supergirl said as if she was aggrieved but she was smiling.</p><p>"That tentacle thing didn't do any weird things to you, right?" Starfire asked too.</p><p>"Starfire!" Diana yelled from the background and the camera shook as they fought for who to hold it. Eventually, Diana won the small scuffle and handed the lightwave device to Green Lantern.</p><p>Seeing the dark-skinned man appear in the frame, Naruto said:</p><p>
  <em>"Tell the Guardians that the mission is complete. Though there were some complications. They should send a few dozen Green Lanterns at least and someone well-versed in medicine, magic or mind arts. There are several thousand people parasitised by Black Mercy plants. A huge hive."</em>
</p><p>"Black Mercy you say?!" Green Lantern could not help crying out.</p><p>
  <em>"Yes. Black Mercy that were genetically engineered to give nightmares to the host instead of a beautiful dream. I did not want to risk taking the plants off of the people myself. I'm not a medic and I'm not experienced in matters like these. I don't know what would happen if I were to suddenly take them off."</em>
</p><p>In order to prove his words, Naruto turned the camera towards his surroundings. Thanks to a shadow clone illuminating the darkness-filled hall with a fire technique, Green Lantern was able to see what was there.</p><p>"My god...!" he said in shock.</p><p>He was not the only one with that reaction. The other 4 peeking over his shoulders at the screen were similarly appalled at the sight of thousands of people hanging from the ceiling in fleshy cocoons and with a mass of tentacles wrapped around their neck, torso and face.</p><p>
  <em>"The ones orchestrating this are dead. We'll talk more about it once you arrive here. Now let me speak with Diana."</em>
</p><p>Green Lantern gave Wonder Woman the lightwave device and, judging by the lack of noise in the background, she went to a different room of the spaceship.</p><p><em>"I've made you worry. I'm sorry."</em> he said softly.</p><p>The princess shook her head.</p><p>"No, more importantly, I'm relieved to see you are all right."</p><p>Taking a look at his still covered by mask face, she asked:</p><p>"Are you okay?"</p><p>Luckily, the mask covered the haunted expression he had on his face then. After a long pause, he said:</p><p>
  <em>"I'm better now. I can see you."</em>
</p><p>The <em>'You are alive' </em>part was left unsaid.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His hands went through a quick sequence of hand seals that ended in a Tiger seal. His chest inflated and then a serpentine dragon of fire came out of his mouth. Though it was made of fire, one would be tempted to think it was alive when it let out a roar that shook the atmosphere. Next to him, a shadow clone went through a different series of hand seals, one that ended with a Bird seal. His chest also inflated and a cyan dragon of pressurised wind came out from his mouth.</p><p>The two serpentine dragons roared as they coiled around each other. But fire always held an advantage over the wind. The cyan dragon was devoured by the red dragon, making the flaming dragon grow to more than 3 times its previous size. It was an over 200 feet long serpentine dragon of fire.</p><p>Under Naruto's control, the fire dragon lunged at the jungle surrounding the military base below. The trees, the rocks, the hundreds of corpses belonging to Mongul's army and the blood pooling on the ground - everything was melted or evaporated.</p><p>On Naruto's shoulder, a nine-tailed fox cub alternated between watching the destruction and looking at him. After he finished killing all of Mongul's henchmen, Naruto contacted him and told him to come down.</p><p>"How did that plant even sneak up on you? Your Sage senses should've detected any living being for miles around you." the fox said eventually.</p><p>"I was careless." Naruto answered in a subdued voice.</p><p>Kyuubi sighed.</p><p>"What kind of shinobi or bounty hunter lets a damned plant sneak up on him? Haa~ ...let me guess, it's because of Diana, isn't it? You were talking to her and stopped paying attention to your surroundings. Honestly, you're like a little kid."</p><p>The following silence confirmed the fox's words. A mixed look appeared in his red eyes. On one hand, he wanted to berate Naruto for messing up like that but, on the other hand, he could see how disturbed he was even despite the mask hiding his face.</p><p>After a short while, Naruto extinguished the giant flaming dragon. For hundreds of feet around the military base, everything had been turned into ash and cinders. There was no trace of corpses or blood or the previous battle at all. Due to the immense heat from before, the already cloudy sky had become covered by black clouds and a torrential downpour followed.</p><p>Naruto took the fox from his shoulder into his arms and hugged him to his chest. Through his Negative Emotion Sensing, Kyuubi could feel the tumult of negative feelings in his heart at that moment. So he did not try to get out of his embrace. A screen of chakra was conjured from Naruto's hands, shielding the fox in his arms from the rain pouring from above. But he did not create one for himself too. He let the cold and dirty rain batter his bloodied body. On that dying planet, even the rain was polluted.</p><p>⁂</p><p>After passing through the blanket of purple clouds covering the entirety of the planet, the 5 members of the Justice League were finally able to see the world below. They were above a strange-looking jungle, one that was in the process of withering. An unhealthy purple hue was shining on the leaves, trunks and branches of the trees.</p><p>Following the coordinates given to them by Naruto, they arrived at the large military base in that jungle. The wide ring of ash surrounding the base made it look very eye-catching from above. The Javelin landed not far from the place where Naruto stood with Kyuubi in his arms.</p><p>"What in the world happened here?" John Stewart was the first to speak after he came out from the Javelin.</p><p>"Aw man, it rains with cats and dogs out there. I think you can handle the situation by yourself, right? You don't need me to come out too, do you?" Flash said in a hopeful voice but he was suddenly pushed from behind with a force he had not expected. Taken by surprise, he was thrown out of the spaceship and he fell flat on his face on the ground.</p><p>Loud giggles came from behind.</p><p>"Kara, that wasn't nice at all!" Starfire reprimanded though her face looked like she was struggling not to laugh.</p><p>"I didn't mean to push him that hard." Supergirl said half-apologetically but she was not fooling anyone with the large grin on her face.</p><p>The two girls came out of the Javelin too but they were flying to avoid getting in contact with the mud. At that moment Flash also sat up from the ground with wet ash and mud all over his suit. The only saving grace was that he was wearing a transparent breathing mask which shielded his face from being dirtied too. Apart from Green Lantern, the rest of them were all wearing breathing masks as a precaution against the toxic environment.</p><p>Supergirl and Starfire started to laugh out loud at the sight of Flash looking like a pig that had rolled in the mud. But their copious giggles turned in to shrieks when Flash's 2 arms transformed into 2 whirlwinds and the two girls were splattered with mud and ash from head to toes, just like him.</p><p>"Flash! You'll pay for this!" the girls yelled.</p><p>In the next moment, a full-on mud fight broke between the three of them.</p><p>"Will you three stop acting like brats?!" Green Lantern shouted in irritation. "Flash, you're supposed to be older and more mature than that!"</p><p>"They're the one that started it!" the speedster retorted but he knew that Green Lantern was quite angry at that moment and did not push the limit of his patience.</p><p>"And you two! We didn't come here on a vacation. We have a mission to accomplish! You don't get to joke around and play in the field!" he shouted at the two teenage girls.</p><p>Starfire made herself small and looked down.</p><p>"I'm sorry." she said meekly.</p><p>In contrast, Supergirl crossed her arms in front of her chest and grumbled:</p><p>"Sheesh, lighten up a little, it's not the end of the world."</p><p>While the 4 of them were bickering back and forth like that, Wonder Woman came out of the spaceship too and flew to the boulder where Naruto and Kyuubi were sitting. She stopped in front of him with a worried look on her face when she took in his appearance. Usually, he wore a black combat suit and a fur-collared cloak on top; coupled with his ANBU-style white fox mask, he would give off the impression of a mysterious and seasoned mercenary. But, in the present, he was far from that. He was bare-chested, covered in mud and coagulated blood that the rain had not managed to wash off. He looked like he had been through a war.</p><p>"I'd hug you but-" Naruto started to say but Wonder Woman suddenly closed the distance and took him in her arms. "-your suit will get dirty." he finished in a small voice.</p><p>Wonder Woman's new costume consisted of a pure white cloak, white skorts and a white top with a golden owl symbol on its chest along with the golden armoured parts such as the greaves, the pauldrons, the tiara and the ear-wings ornaments. But at his words, her response was to hug him tighter instead of letting go.</p><p>"It doesn't matter. I missed you, Naruto."</p><p>No longer hesitating, he brought his arms around her and hugged her back too. The white fox mask dispersed in a shower of lights and he buried his face in the side of her neck, in her hair.</p><p>Wonder Woman did not possess any supernatural abilities to see the secrets lurking into other people's hearts but how could she not know what he was feeling at that moment. He was hugging her as if he was afraid she would disappear if he let go. She rubbed the back of his head soothingly, just like her mother used to do to her when she was younger. He melted at her gentle caress.</p><p>"I missed you too, Diana."</p><p>In truth, about one month passed since Naruto left the Earth but for the two of them if felt like much longer.</p><p>On the side, Starfire and Supergirl were about to approach them too but Green Lantern raised a hand and shook his head.</p><p>"Don't butt in, let them have their moment. He looks like he needs it."</p><p>⁂</p><p>After a long time, Naruto reluctantly broke the hug. Diana involuntarily smiled at the needy look on his face and brought a hand to his face, pinching one of his scarred cheeks. Naruto leaned into her touch and raised his hand, putting it on top of hers. Then, he turned his head and lightly kissed her hand.</p><p>The fox glared at them with an annoyed look on his face and a low growl came out of his throat. He did not like being ignored. Naruto and Diana both looked at him at the same time and they chuckled. She bent down and took the tiny fox cub in her arms.</p><p>"It's good to see you too, Kurama." she said with a giggle.</p><p>Kyuubi let out a condescending sniff but did not put up a front for too long once the princess started to scratch a particularly pleasant spot on his back. He became putty in her hands.</p><p>It was at that moment that the other 4 members of the Justice League chose to close in and start a conversation.</p><p>"Good to see you're alright, man. But dang, they sure did a number on you, didn't they?" Flash said as he looked at Naruto's ruined clothes and at all the coagulated blood on his body.</p><p>"Ah, this isn't my blood. Mostly. But what the hell happened to you all?" Naruto said when he saw Flash, Starfire and Supergirl covered in mud from head to toes.</p><p>"It's his fault! / It's their fault!" the speedster and the two girls yelled at the same time and pointed at the other accusatorily.</p><p>Naruto and Wonder Woman chuckled.</p><p>"How have you been, Koriand'r? Are the Earthlings treating you well?"</p><p>The redhead grinned happily and flew at Naruto with her arms wide open, grabbing him in a bear hug. Naruto patted her head while looking at Wonder Woman awkwardly. The princess just smiled at his discomfort.</p><p>"I'm happy to see you are fine. When I heard that a tentacle monster attacked you I thought-"</p><p>Naruto flicked her forehead making her yelp in slight pain.</p><p>"Get your head out of the gutter." Naruto scolded before giving Supergirl a mean, pointed look. "You're the one that thought her weird things, aren't you?"</p><p>"I don't know what you're talking about." Supergirl said with a large grin on her face. She came to Naruto with her arms wide too. "Don't I get a hug too?"</p><p>"No hugs for nasty perverts," Naruto said.</p><p>"Hey! I resent that!"</p><p>Out of everyone present there, Green Lantern was the only one who still did not have a spec of mud, ash or blood on him. Coated in the green light coming from his Power Ring, his uniform was in pristine condition.</p><p>"The other Green Lanterns should arrive in about 20 minutes. Tell me what happened in the meantime." John Stewart said.</p><p>After Naruto told him the information he had acquired and what had transpired, a complex look appeared on Green Lantern's face.</p><p>"We've come in contact with Mongul before. He used to rule Warworld, a weaponised planet. He captured strong beings from all over the galaxy and forced them to fight in an arena, to the death. Superman was captured and forced to fight like that too. We were the ones that dethroned him. I thought that his former subordinates would execute or imprison him. I didn't think he'd be plotting something like this in the dark."</p><p>Naruto shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>"That's what happens when you don't pull the weeds from their roots. No matter how many times you cut them, as long as they are still alive, they will grow back. And you'll start the whole thing all over again. Oh well. You guys do you. I'm not gonna lecture you on how to run things. By the way, I extracted some information from Mongul and his son before they died."</p><p>"You mean to say you tortured them for information." Green Lantern said bluntly.</p><p>"Ma, ma, don't sweat the small stuff." Naruto said and waved a hand. "Apparently, the reason for this planet's ruined nature and environment is that they've been working on transforming Debstam into a new Warworld. But they fucked up when they messed around with the planet's core."</p><p>"What about the 4 Green Lanterns that died in this sector?" John Stewart asked.</p><p>"Mongul's son murdered them. He was a Yellow Lantern. Probably quite strong for your standards."</p><p>The way that Green Lantern squinted at his words was almost comical.</p><p>"You'll probably want to notify your superiors that Mongul also has a daughter. She has an entire fleet under her command. If what Mongul said before dying is true, she's planning on starting an invasion soon. As for where - I have no idea. That's for you to find out and deal with it."</p><p>When they heard the contents of Naruto and Green Lantern's conversation, the previously bubbly Supergirl and Starfire toned down their upbeat attitude and Flash became more serious too. As Green Lantern had told them before, that was not a place where they could play around. And that feeling was cemented for good when they followed Naruto inside and saw the huge hive holding trapped thousands of living beings in fleshy cocoons.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Whoa, that dude looks like a meatball!" Kyuubi said in amazement at the sight of a particular member of the Green Lantern Corps.</p><p>"Look, there's a squirrel too." Naruto said with a chuckle.</p><p>Over twenty Green Lanterns were working together with John Stewart and the other 4 members of the Justice League to cut the fleshy cocoons of the hive open and free the trapped people from it. Wonder Woman was using a sword to cut the cocoons open, Supergirl was using her heat vision while Flash and Starfire were carrying the people outside of the military base.</p><p>Naruto approached the Green Lantern that looked like he was in charge of everyone there. It was a very tall and muscular humanoid being with pink skin, pig-like face and tusks.</p><p><em>'First time I actually see a pig man. The universe sure is large.'</em> Naruto inwardly thought.</p><p>He did not judge him nor did he laugh at him. He had seen all kinds of people before. To him, be they humans or other species, it did not matter their appearance as long as he could come to an understanding with them - after all, his closest business partner for decades had been a rat-man.</p><p>"You're not going to take the Back Mercy plants from around their necks?" he asked when he saw that the rescued people were not being freed by the tentacle-like plants.</p><p>The orc-like Green Lantern shook his large head and said:</p><p>"Freeing them from the plants is easy. You just have to pull the plants off of them and it's done. But who knows for how long they've been subjected to the illusion of the Black Mercy. It would be not surprising if everyone here went insane after being snapped back to reality. So we're going to take everyone to Oa. Mother Mercy will help them preserve their mental health."</p><p>"Mother Mercy?" Naruto asked suspiciously.</p><p>The Green Lantern looked like he was debating in his mind whether to tell him or not.</p><p>"Mother Mercy is the progenitor of these plants. She is a Green Lantern too."</p><p>Although Naruto was back to wearing his white fox ANBU mask, the Green Lantern noticed he was startled.</p><p>"Mother Mercy is an empath, with great telepathic powers. She created the Black Mercy with a pure intent in mind. She wanted to offer the terminally ill people a moment of happiness before their death. The original plants would give the terminally ill people the experience of living a perfect life before their death, letting them experience happiness. Then, the people would die painlessly, with a smile on their face."</p><p>"Earthlings have a saying: the road to Hell is paved with good intentions," Naruto murmured.</p><p>"Well, it was only after creating them that she realized the potential for harm that her children possessed. But is that not the same with everything else in the universe? Powers, abilities, tools, skills - whether they are evil or not will be decided by what are they being used for." the Green Lantern said. "By the way, I'm Kilowog. Pleased to meet you. I've heard many things about you before."</p><p>Naruto grabbed Kilowog's outstretched hand and shook it.</p><p>"Pleased to meet me? Didn't yall paint a target on my back? I'm a 'universal-level threat', aren't I?" he said with a laugh.</p><p>Kilowog shrugged his shoulders.</p><p>"That is the Guardians. Personally, I admire your work. Especially what you did in the Vega System. I never agreed with the Guardians' decision to ban us from acting in the Vega System and letting the Psions do whatever atrocities they pleased. And I'm not the only one; other Green Lanterns were opposed to it as well... But, in the end, we are all loyal to the Corps. We do what the Guardians tell us to do."</p><p>"However, I give respect where respect is due. You are a man worthy of respect, Caterpillar. And you helped us with this matter too. You have avenged our 4 comrades' deaths as well."</p><p>"Um, wow. I... didn't see that coming." Naruto said, his voice betraying how surprised he was. He had not expected a Green Lantern of all beings to pay him homage like that.</p><p>⁂</p><p>One hour later, the squad of Green Lantern made a huge bubble of green light and took flight with the rescued people in tow, leaving the planet. Naruto had not just watched while everyone worked. Although there were thousands of people trapped, with the help of his Shadow Clones in addition to the group of Green Lanterns, it took a very short time to free everyone from the hive.</p><p>Covered in mud from head to toes - the torrential rain had not stopped even after two hours - Flash, Starfire and Supergirl plopped themselves at the entrance of the Javelin tiredly. As for Green Lantern, he was already inside the ship, starting up the engines of the spaceship.</p><p>"How about that little vacation now?" Naruto asked Wonder Woman.</p><p>Her face brightened when heard his words.</p><p>"You mean it?"</p><p>"But of course! Didn't I say that we'd go on a small holiday after I'm done with this mission?"</p><p>There was a small shriek of delight that came from Diana at his words and, in a rush of excitement, she hugged him and pressed a quick kiss on his lips.</p><p>"Did she just...!" Flash said, his mouth agape.</p><p>Starfire and Supergirl looked at each other amazed too. They had never seen Wonder Woman acting like that before! She was a serious, no-nonsense type of woman. She rarely joked and she never acted in an unladylike fashion. She acted like a warrior in battle and a princess outside of it.</p><p>Flash, in particular, was the most surprised because he had known Wonder Woman for almost 2 years already yet that was the first time that he had seen her act that girly. He dressed his voice uncomfortably.</p><p>"Erm, you're not coming back with us?" he asked.</p><p>"Tell Martian Manhunter that I'll take a few days off-"</p><p>"-a week" Naruto supplemented.</p><p>"-a week." Diana agreed and gave Naruto a wet kiss on his cheek.</p><p>Seeing that Flash looked like he wanted to say something more, Wonder Woman added:</p><p>"We'll be back in about one week for sure. We want to spend the Christmas together, on Earth." Turning towards Naruto, she asked, her eyes slightly narrowed: "We will spend Christmas together, right?"</p><p>In response, Naruto lightly pinched her nose, greatly enjoying how her face scrunched up in annoyance. His cheeks were stretched by a large grin.</p><p>"Just get a room you two already!" Supergirl blew her top from the side.</p><p>Everyone started laughing at her outburst, Supergirl herself too.</p><p>"The big bad wolf-"</p><p>"-fox" Diana corrected</p><p>"-is kidnapping the princess and holding her captive for a while," Naruto said with a chuckle and then he unexpectedly swept the Amazon princess of her feet and took her in a princess carry.</p><p>Diana's face lit up in an interesting shade of red but she brought her hands around his neck and let herself be held. She was not quite used to being treated like an actual princess but she did not dislike it. Not one bit.</p><p>Naruto could not take his eyes off her face. Seeing her embarrassed but happy expression made his stomach churn strangely.</p><p>
  <em>'Gah! She's too adorable!'</em>
</p><p>Completely ignoring the other three who were staring at them, Naruto teleported himself and Diana away, leaving them without as much as a goodbye. The moment they came out of the body-flicker movement, Naruto instantly took her lips in a passion-filled kiss.</p><p>When they parted, they were both breathless.</p><p>"This gap-moe of yours is bad on my heart." Naruto said with a faked look of pain on his face. "I want to hold you, kiss you, and never let you go."</p><p>Though her face was flushed, Diana said coquettishly:</p><p>"What stops you from doing just that?"</p><p>She smiled in triumph when Naruto did what he was told and pressed his lips against hers hungrily. Still holding the kiss, she maneuvred herself in his arms, changing her position from being held in a princess carry to wrapping her long legs around his midsection, squishing her breasts against his chest. His hands naturally went to her large ass and squeezed her buttcheeks, making her squeal in their kiss in delight.</p><p>When they parted from the kiss, they rested their forehead against each other and softly rubbed their noses together. They continued to exchange small pecks and whisper sweet nothings to each other.</p><p>"I missed holding you like this." he said and pecked her.</p><p>"It's been only one month, silly." she said but despite her words, she took his lips in a kiss too, making a wet smooch sound.</p><p>Naruto involuntarily bit his lower lip at the sight of her red and full, ripe lips. Her white and beautiful teeth were revealed when she smiled knowingly at his action.</p><p>"I missed you." he said again.</p><p>"I missed you more." she whispered.</p><p>"But you said it's been <em>only one month</em>, didn't you?" he countered.</p><p>She bit the tip of his nose in response, making him shake his head to escape. She giggled in delight at him but she let out a cute cry when he suddenly fought back and attacked the tender flesh of her neck with a kiss.</p><p>"Not fair! That's-, that's cheating!" she stammered and started struggling to get out of his arms.</p><p>But with a hand on her butt and another on the small of her back, she could not go anywhere. She was trapped in his strong arms.</p><p>"Ara, ara, did I find a weak spot? What is this I <em>wonder</em>?" he paused his actions and said with a grin.</p><p>"That's a horrible pun- Ah! Stop it!" Wonder Woman began to say but let out another cute shriek when his teeth sunk in the skin of her neck and started to suck on it.</p><p>From one of the surrounding trees on the side, Kyuubi looked at them with a 'good grief' look on his face.</p><p>
  <em>'These two really are idiots. Both of them! What if I was an enemy trying to sneak up on them?'</em>
</p><p>For the two lovebirds, it was like the outside world ceased to exist. Being apart from each other from one month not only that it did not make their passion fade, it fanned its flames even harder than before.</p><p>Kyuubi let out an aggrieved sigh but he ended up smiling. Through his negative sensing emotions, he could feel that the previous storm of darkness in Naruto's heart had completely vanished. His brain now filled with the love hormone, it was as though Naruto had completely forgotten about the trauma he had been left with by the Black Mercy. At that moment, only the Amazon princess existed in his mind.</p><p>In the end, the fox cub closed his eyes and curled himself in a ball of fur on the branch of a tree, falling into a half-asleep state, ignoring the two 'idiots' flirting below. He only extended his senses to their surroundings, keeping his mind's eye active to spot any would-be threats.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The reward Naruto received from completing this bounty was not revealed in this chapter but it is a rather important thing, one that would play a significant role in the future. I hope you liked the chapter. More Naruto/Diana goodness coming up soon. Prepare your insulin shots. Diabetes incoming.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Forever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Semi-darkness, a dark sky, purple-tinted vegetation and a withering jungle, on a dying planet. It was a desolate scenery, reeking of death. But for a particular man and woman, it was as if they were in the middle of a walk in a park. With their hands linked together and a pair of silly grins on their faces, the two of them could not take their eyes off each other.</p><p>The man in question was of an average height and his haggard and bloodied appearance made him look rather pitiful. In contrast, the woman holding his hand looked very different. Though her white clothes were also stained by blood and dirt, one could tell from a glance that she was royalty. She looked like a warrior princess. They were none other than Naruto and Wonder Woman.</p><p>Unlike other times, instead of sitting in his usual place on Naruto's shoulder, this time around Kyuubi was curled up on Wonder Woman's shoulder, basking in the comforting aura that she was unconsciously emitting due to goddess Artemis' blessing.</p><p>"I have to take a shower. Urgently. My whole body feels sticky and itchy." he said.</p><p>"You have a shower in your ship?" Diana asked curiously.</p><p>"I even have a bathtub." Naruto said and chuckled. "My ship is basically my home. Seeing as I spend most of my days on the ship, I equipped it with everything I need to live decently. I also have a fully equipped kitchen - tho it's not big. A bedroom and a decent living room too."</p><p>"I didn't get the chance to see the inside but your ship didn't strike me as being that big. It's like what? About 150 feet long?" Diana said.</p><p>"If you exclude the space occupied by the engine room and the control room, the remaining space is enough to fit in a small apartment. It's more than enough for a guy and a fox to live in."</p><p>Wonder Woman turned her head to the side and let out a silent but long yawn.</p><p>"Ah, I'm beat." she said.</p><p>"Sorry." Naruto muttered.</p><p>When he had called her earlier that day, she had been sleeping. Not only that he had disturbed her sleep, but he had also made her worry and she flew to half a galaxy away because she was afraid for his safety. But Diana smiled at him and lightly squeezed his hand.</p><p>"It was nothing. As long as you are alright, that's all that matters."</p><p>She stopped her walk and came in front of him.</p><p>"You <em>are </em>alright, yes?"</p><p>She remembered that when she got out of the Javelin, Naruto took her in his arms and he did not want to let her go for a long time.</p><p>"I-,"</p><p>Naruto started but he did not continue speaking. Because of his happiness at seeing Diana and having her in her arms, he had momentarily been distracted from what he had been through but now that a bit of time passed, he was reminded of it.</p><p>"Let's not talk about depressing stuff now." he said and gave her a smile.</p><p>She brought her hand up to his face and gently caressed her scarred cheeks.</p><p>"I don't want to push you. But just so you know, whenever you feel like wanting to talk about it, I'll always be here for you."</p><p>He closed his eyes and leaned into her caress.</p><p>"Thank you." he said and took her hand into his.</p><p>The rest of the walk was quiet, the two of them only exchanging looks and smiles.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Um, Naruto?" Wonder Woman called him out in a hesitating voice.</p><p>"Yes?"</p><p>"Perhaps you can borrow me some of your clothes for the night?"</p><p>She was looking to the side, her eyes not quite daring to meet his.</p><p>Naruto brought a hand to his chest, making a posture as though he was feeling pain.</p><p>"You're doing it on purpose, aren't you? Trying to kill me with your cuteness, aren't you!"</p><p>"I-It's not what you think!" Wonder Woman protested. "I just came in a rush and I don't have a change of clothes because I didn't think I'd be staying over! That's all! Don't misunderstand!"</p><p>The more she spoke, the more flustered she became. By the time she finished her words, a healthy pink rose from her neck to her face, lightly colouring her otherwise pale cheeks.</p><p>To Naruto, her flustered and embarrassed expression was too much. it was a critical hit.</p><p>
  <em>'Crap, why is she so cute?!'</em>
</p><p>His mind involuntarily went again over what she said. When he pictured her dressed only in one of his oversized T-shirts and a pair of panties, his face became hot too. Both red-faced, Naruto and Diana could not look at each other.</p><p>"I'll go prepare you the bath." Naruto said and scurried away from the ship's living room.</p><p>Now that she was left alone in the room, Wonder Woman dropped all the pretence and buried her face in the palms of her hands. But when she put her hands down, a determined expression appeared on her face.</p><p>
  <em>'I won't let him always get the better of me!'</em>
</p><p>When Naruto returned from the bathroom, just like her, he looked like he had also regained his composure in the meantime.</p><p>"I ran the water, you're good to go."</p><p>"Thank you." she said and, as she passed by him, she stopped to give him a kiss on the cheek.</p><p>He was still grinning in satisfaction a few seconds later when Diana looked back and said over her shoulder:</p><p>"You can join me, you know?"</p><p>Saying that, she removed her long white cloak and she let it fall on the floor of the ship. From the corner of her eye, she could see that he was looking at her wide-eyed, his mouth ajar. She even caught the movement of his Adam's apple when he swallowed his saliva.</p><p><em>'Ah, this is so embarrassing!' </em>she thought to herself and no longer looked back at him for Naruto to not see that her face was boiling. It was one thing to exchange kisses and hugs with her boyfriend and a completely different thing to invite him to bathe together with her and entice him like that by stripping off her clothes in front of him.</p><p>Walking towards the bathroom, she was fully committed to giving him a show, stripping one article of armour at a time. She was in the middle of taking off her shoulderless white top when a gale of wind came from behind and Diana suddenly found herself pressed flat against the door of the room. A pair of strong arms wrapped around her svelte waist and she felt a particularly rigid mound pressing against her from behind.</p><p>"You little minx, do you have any idea what you're doing to me?" Naruto rasped in her ear, his voice rough with desire.</p><p>With her breasts squished and her face turned to the side and pressed against the door, Wonder Woman had never been dominated like that by a man.</p><p>"I think I have an idea. Something down there feels very <em>hard.</em>" she said suggestively and she pushed back with her ass against him for more emphasis.</p><p>At her words, he nearly came undone right there and then. He let out a grunt and he ground himself against her, pushing her even harder against the wall.</p><p>"Wait, don't touch me there!" Wonder Woman suddenly cried out when his hand sneaked around her waist and went between her legs.</p><p>But when his fingers reached her special spot, all her resistance vanished and she started to grind back against him, matching his movements with hers. It was only a few moments later that the pent-up sexual tension from before reached the peak in them both and they came undone.</p><p>"You're so wet I can feel it through the fabric."</p><p>At his words, her knees trembled and her teeth sunk deeply into her plush lower lip. Breathing out heavily, the two stood in the same position, with him pressing her face-first against the door, and tried to recompose themselves.</p><p>"Here I am trying to hold myself back and let things run slow but... I'm just a man. I won't be able to hold back for much longer if you keep tempting me like that." Naruto said with bated breath.</p><p>"What if I don't want it slow? What if I want you to go <em>hard</em>?"</p><p>It had taken all her Amazonian courage for Wonder Woman to say something that raunchy but the effect was immediate. She was roughly turned around and she did not have a chance to even voice out her surprise because he sealed her lips with his in a hungry kiss. The look of primal want in his red yes made her break the kiss and moan but he covered her mouth with his again, taking her breath away. When she also felt his hard thing pressing against her core, she lost all the strength in her legs.</p><p>The two of them slid against the door together, letting themselves fall slowly on the floor. But Naruto broke the kiss and cupped her face with his hands.</p><p>"Don't stop." Diana said in a needy voice. "Kiss me. Touch me. Take me."</p><p>A groan of almost painful desire came from his chest at her dirty talking. There was no profanity but simply hearing someone like Wonder Woman, an Amazonian princess, speak like that was turning him on like mad.</p><p>"I want you so bad, Diana." he said with his eyes closed, using all his willpower to keep his inner beast in check. "But not like this. Not like a bunch of animals in heat. Not here, in a cold hallway, not while we're covered in grime, blood and filth."</p><p>He took her lips again and this time his kiss was gentle and slow but still no less passionate than before.</p><p>"I want our first time to be special. I want to treat you like a princess and worship every inch of your body, like a goddess. I want to make love to you."</p><p>The words he said made Wonder Woman almost desperately horny. But at the same time, her heart melted. Her burning lust gave way to her warm feelings of love and she buried her face in the crook of his neck.</p><p>"Man, you really stink." Diana said and, just like that, the fiery mood from before vanished. They burst into laughter and they kept at it until they could no longer laugh. Even when their laughter subsided, they could not wipe their smiles off their faces.</p><p>⁂</p><p>In the end, they showered separately.</p><p>But there was just one bed in the ship. Because of that, three hours after he went to bed, Naruto could still not fall asleep, his bloodshot eyes staring a hole into the ceiling of the ship. The reason for that? A gorgeous Amazon was sleeping draped all over him. For a repressed virgin like him, it was too much stimulation. He was so turned on that it was physically painful.</p><p>
  <em>'I only have myself to blame for not doing it when she threw herself at me.'</em>
</p><p>Nevertheless, he did not really regret his decision.</p><p>
  <em>'It's still better to take things slow.'</em>
</p><p>Although Naruto often liked to play-fight with Kyuubi and annoy him, he held the fox's advice in very high regard.</p><p>
  <em>'He's lived for much longer than me. Makes sense he knows more things than I do.'</em>
</p><p>He did not think that what he felt for Wonder Woman was just lust. Far from that, especially after spending over 10 years married to her in the illusion of the Black Mercy. He loved her so much that it was scaring him. But he understood that realistically, Wonder Woman could not be as invested as he was after just ~1 month of relationship. Because of that, he listened to Kyuubi's advice - to take things slower.</p><p>
  <em>'I want to date her. I want to get to know her better. Just chatting through a video call is nowhere near enough to truly know someone.'</em>
</p><p>He did not want to jump over all those steps, straight to sex. He did not want their relationship to be based off just physical attraction.</p><p>
  <em>'I want to be together with her forever.'</em>
</p><p>At that thought, he unconsciously tightened his hold on the woman sleeping on his chest. She stirred slightly in her sleep but she did not wake up. One of her legs intertwined with his and she pressed her head deep into his chest, hugging his waist with both of her hands.</p><p>Wearing only one of his t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants and sticking so closely to him made him nostalgic. He closed his eyes and a smile appeared on his face.</p><p>
  <em>'Just like before.'</em>
</p><p>It was just like in the time when they were married and sleeping together in the same bed, in his dream. At peace, unknowingly, at some point, he fell asleep.</p><p>⁂</p><p>A rather abrupt movement shook Wonder Woman awake from her sleep. But she was so tired and the warmth radiating from the body underneath her was so cosy that she fell back asleep in a matter of seconds.</p><p>"No... please not her. Not Thea. Please!"</p><p>Despite being asleep, her sensitive hearing picked up exactly what he said. She woke up instantly. Her first thought was -</p><p>
  <em>'Who is Thea?!'</em>
</p><p>But she heard him sleep talking again.</p><p>"Everyone is dead... no..."</p><p>He was not shouting, it was just a quiet mumble but his forehead was sweaty and his eyes were moving very fast behind his closed eyelids. He was having a nightmare.</p><p>"Naruto, wake up." she said in a whisper and shook him slightly. "Wake up, darling." she called out again and shook him a bit harder.</p><p>He woke with a start, a haunted look in his eyes. But he calmed down when he saw her worried visage.</p><p>"Hey, did I wake you up?"</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>"I think you were having a bad dream... and who is Thea, by the way?" she asked suspiciously.</p><p>A smile involuntarily made its way on his face.</p><p>"Are you jealous? What a cutiepie. But you're my first and only girlfriend. You got nothing to be jealous of. I'll tell you more about Thea some other time. Let's just sleep now, ok?" he said and kissed the top of her head.</p><p>After that, he turned around on his side, with his back at her and tried to sleep. But Diana laid back next to him and hugged him from behind, making him the little spoon. It was such an unexpected gesture from her that he did not know how to react at first. Still, after the ordeal he had gone through that day, he was drained. It did not take long for him to fall back asleep in Wonder Woman's embrace.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Good morning, princess." Naruto said filled with energy and turned on the lights in the bedroom.</p><p>In contrast, Wonder Woman covered herself with the blanket and buried her face in the pillow.</p><p>"Go away. Let me sleep." she whined.</p><p>But she suddenly threw away her blanket and sat up.</p><p>"You cooked pancakes?!"</p><p>Her sleepiness vanished in an instant. Looking at her eager face and at how her messy hair was standing in all directions, he burst into laughter.</p><p>"Yep. I didn't know what you liked to eat for breakfast so I made you some pancakes with chocolate."</p><p>He put the tray in her lap and poured her a glass of milk too. At first, Diana just eagerly focused on eating but she started to become embarrassed the longer he kept staring at her.</p><p>"Do you want some too?" she asked, hoping that maybe if he ate something too he would stop looking at her with so much intensity.</p><p>"I ate my fill. I made these just for you." he shook his head and said.</p><p>"Who was Thea by the way?"</p><p>The smile on Naruto's face disappeared.</p><p><em>'We haven't known each other for long. What if she freaks out?' </em>he thought.</p><p>They been together for a short while; he was afraid that it was a little too early for him to be mentioning kids and marriage. He was troubled that it would scare her off.</p><p>
  <em>'I'll tell her. If we're going to spend the next few weeks together, I can't guarantee this subject won't pop up again. Might as well get it out of the way from the start.'</em>
</p><p>He sat on the edge of the bed, right next to her, and leaned with his back against the wall.</p><p>"Remember that tendril you saw wrapping around my neck during our video call? That was a Black Mercy. I got to experience it first-hand."</p><p>Wonder Woman put down the pancake and looked at him intensely. There was a worried look on her face.</p><p>"In that dream, my parents, my mentor, my auntie, my friends, they were all alive."</p><p>He looked at the metallic-grey ceiling lost in thought.</p><p>"Before I had this dream, I thought that I had gotten over the loss of my homeworld, family, and friends. It's been almost 100 years since then. You'd think that one's wounds would heal by then, right? But this illusion gave me more than I've ever had...and then it took everything away."</p><p>"Was Thea one of your friends from when you were young?" Wonder Woman asked.</p><p>Naruto took one of her hands in his and said:</p><p>"Thea was my daughter. She was my little princess. The cutest thing in the world. She was just as beautiful as you. But she had my energetic personality. "</p><p>He grinned to himself in melancholy.</p><p>"You mean to say we were together?" Diana asked and Naruto moved his eyes from the ceiling to her.</p><p>His smile widened when he saw her shy expression, looking down at her lap. Aware of his gaze on her, her face quickly became red, in a matter of seconds. By now, he was smiling from one ear to another. It took all his self-control to not grab her in his embrace and smother the life out of her with his hug.</p><p>"But of course. The Black Mercy showed me my version of paradise. In my dream, we've been married for more than a decade. We named out daughter Thea because we came to an agreement: if our baby was a boy, I would get to choose his name. If it was a girl, you would choose her name. And you named her Athena. Thea was short for Athena."</p><p>Wonder Woman may have gotten one over him the previous day and teased the hell out of him but the tables had been turned on her in the present. If yesterday she had driven him almost mad, now it was her turn.</p><p><em>'In his perfect world, we were married!' </em>she thought. Unconsciously, she brought her hands to her cheeks and let out a cute squeal. It was only after she heard it herself that she realized what she had done.</p><p>"I take it you're not opposed to the idea?" Naruto said. She did not look at his face but she could practically imagine the shit-eating grin he had just by his voice.</p><p>"Ah, I want to dig a whole and hide myself in it."</p><p>Naruto took both of her hands in his and she reluctantly looked at him. At that point, it was not only her face but her neck and her ears too that were beet red.</p><p>"Don't feel pressured by my dreams." he said seriously. "As I told you yesterday, I want us to take things slow. I'm not a builder but I know that you build a house one brick at a time. I may have spent years married to you in the illusion of the Black Mercy but the plant had no real knowledge about you. It was a version of you crafted by my own thoughts. It was not the real you...That's why, I want us to get to know each other better. I don't want this to be just a fling. I want us to be together forever."</p><p>Diana's embarrassed expression was slowly replaced by a serious, thinking one.</p><p>"Forever is a very long time. Especially for people like us. We don't age."</p><p>Naruto lightly kissed her knuckles.</p><p>"Yes, forever. As long as you'll have me. I know I'm not the most handsome man around; my face is disfigured. But I will devote my life to protecting and making you happy."</p><p>"You are not disfigured, Naruto. I like you just the way you are." she said and brought a hand to caress the dark and thick whisker-like scars on his cheeks. "And I don't need you to protect me. I'm a warrior princess and even a demigoddess. If anything, you're the one who almost died yesterday. I will be the one to protect you." Wonder woman said, her fingers now pinching his cheek.</p><p>She closed the distance between their faces and she pressed her lips against his in a chaste kiss.</p><p>"You wanted to take things slow but what you said just now sounded awfully close to proposing. How does that work?" she said and giggled.</p><p>"I haven't asked for your hand in marriage <strong><em>yet</em></strong>, OK?"</p><p>His annoyed face only made her giggle harder at him.</p><p>"Shut up and eat your pancake!"</p><p>"Yes, yes." she mock agreed and spread some chocolate on a piece of pancake. But instead of eating it herself, she brought the fork in front of his face. "Say aah~"</p><p>His annoyance melted like a miracle and he let her feed him. He had eaten his fill before but how could he deny her when he saw the way her face lit up in happiness when she fed him? Diana herself was not aware of it yet, but she had him wrapped around her little finger.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. The Date</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"So this is how an interstellar map looks like!" Wonder Woman said.</p><p>On the large screen of the supercomputer in the control room, there were countless clusters of stars crammed in together. She did not know where to look.</p><p>"It's a rough map of the 28 galaxies of the known Universe. There are countless galaxies out there but the Green Lantern Corps operates only in 2 large galaxies - Milky Way and Andromeda - and the dwarf galaxies in their proximity. So when you hear your Green Lantern teammate talking about the 3600 sectors of the known Universe, that's what he's referring to: Milky Way, Andromeda and their satellites." Naruto explained.</p><p>When he zoomed in the map on the spiral of the Milky Way galaxy on which Sol System was located, she said startled:</p><p>"Wait, all those tiny dots were solar systems?! I thought they were planets!"</p><p>"Of course not, dummy." he snickered and chided her but in an endearing manner. "They're planetary systems. Or, as you would call them, solar systems. Milky Way alone has hundreds of billions of stars and for every star, there are at least 2-3 planets. Can you imagine what it would be like to have a map with all the planets?"</p><p>"How are the Green Lanterns capable of protecting such an immense area? There are only 7200 of them!" she asked. She had been blessed by goddess Athena with wisdom but she had not exactly taken any astronomy classes on the Paradise Island. In regards to cosmic awareness, she was not much different than other people.</p><p>"There may be trillions of stars in these 28 galaxies but there are extremely few systems with planets that can sustain life. Most of the sentient species in the Universe require similar conditions to live as the Earthlings: a not too high gravity, oxygen, water and a gentle climate. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions too but, generally, that is the case. There aren't that many inhabited planets. Most planetary systems don't have even 1 planet that could support life in them. But it's true that the Green Lanterns are stretched too thin for them to have any real impact in preserving the peace. Otherwise, intergalactic wars like the one between the Thanagarians and the Gordonians would not exist. The most that the Lanterns can do is to just oversee their home planets - like John Stewart does - and band together against threats that could potentially harm the well-being of entire galaxies. Against someone like Darkseid for example."</p><p>Wonder Woman was listening to his words with rapt attention, practically drinking the information. She had been outside of Earth on several occasions before so she was not a complete greenhorn, but she still lacked essential knowledge about the Universe at large.</p><p>"Look at you, teaching others about the universe. I almost can't believe you were the dead last in the Academy." Kyuubi said teasingly from the side.</p><p>Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.</p><p>"True, I was never good with theory and all that stuff."</p><p>"But you seem to know what you're talking about." Wonder Woman pointed out.</p><p>"Well, how else could I search for my homeworld without learning the shape of this world? I was forced by the situation to learn. But it took me a long time to learn how to handle technology and interstellar travel."</p><p>He zoomed out the map back to normal and asked her:</p><p>"Well then, where would you like to go?"</p><p>The lost look on her face made both Naruto and Kyuubi laugh.</p><p>"Hm, maybe the question you asked her was wrong." Kyuubi said and then asked Wonder Woman: "What would you like to do? We can go anywhere and do anything. We can visit ancient civilisations, we can go gambling or we can have life-threatening trips through deadly environments too if you want something spicier."</p><p>Naruto grabbed the fox by one of his large ears and said in annoyance:</p><p>"Oy, you tryin' to steal my date or something?"</p><p>Wonder Woman giggled at them.</p><p>"I'm not exactly sure what I want to do. I mean I usually fight crime. My work with the Justice League takes up all my time." she said and Naruto and Kyuubi who had been on the verge of starting a brawl both stopped and turned to look at her.</p><p>"You don't have any hobbies?" Kyuubi asked. "For example this idiot loves fishing, eating ramen and he used to care for plants too when he was younger. He's great at gambling too."</p><p>She crossed her arms awkwardly, aware of how unusual her answer had been. She was no different than a workaholic. She had spoken like someone who was obsessed with their job and had no social life at all.</p><p>A tick mark appeared on Naruto's forehead at Kyuubi calling him an idiot but he let it slide because at that moment he was more worried about what Diana had said.</p><p>"What did you do on Themyscira when you weren't training or praying to your gods?" Kyuubi pressed on.</p><p>Naruto patted the fox on the head to stop him from bothering a very uncomfortable-looking Wonder Woman. Then, he took her's hand in his and said kindly:</p><p>"Don't stress yourself over it, Diana. We have one whole week to find out what you like to do. We'll definitely find a hobby for you! And I know the perfect place for it."</p><p>⁂</p><p>Half a day later, Wonder Woman had a look of awe at the sight that could be seen through the cockpit's window: there was an enormous man-made structure in the form of a hexagonal star, dozens of miles wide. Hundreds of spaceships of all sizes were flying towards the star-shaped structure but despite the high influx of visitors, there were so many spaceports to receive them that there were no queues at all.</p><p>"What is this place, Naruto?"</p><p>He smirked at her curiosity and said:</p><p>"You said you don't know what you'd like to do so I thought this is the best place to find out: Genesis Stadium."</p><p>"A stadium? How can a stadium be so immense? What kind of events does it hold?"</p><p>"It's holding matches for the most popular sport in this galaxy. But even if you don't like sports, there are many other things to do. This is basically a space-city with millions of people living in it. There are parks, restaurants, shopping malls, hotels, clubs, cinema theatres, casinos, an amusement park and there is even a small forest."</p><p>Wonder Woman involuntarily smiled at his contagious enthusiasm.</p><p>"You put a lot of thought into it."</p><p>He scratched the back of his head and grinned.</p><p>"But of course. This is going to be our first date. I'm going to take you everywhere and we'll try out everything until you find something you like! Believe it!" he said with conviction, missing the grin that suddenly appeared on Kyuubi's face when he heard his old verbal tick resurfacing. It was very rare to hear it nowadays. It only popped up when Naruto was particularly enthusiastic about something.</p><p>Once they got closer to the immense construct, Naruto grabbed the controls of the ship and steered it manually to land on one of the many dry docks of the space-city. Something like a cylinder was extended from the main building of the spaceport to the door of their ship - no different than how it was done on Earth with aeroplanes sometimes - to allow the three of them to enter the city of Genesis Stadium directly, without needing to put on spacesuits.</p><p>Thin but tall looking robots greeted them in the spaceport's building and after a rigorous check-up, they were allowed entrance in Genesis Stadium. But when the automatic doors slid open and they exited the building, entering the actual space-city, their sight went white and the three of them were blinded for a few moments as a few dozen blitzes of light went off at the same time.</p><p>"Oy, oy, give me a break..." Naruto groaned when he recovered his eyesight and took in the scene in front of them. A large group of reporters were snapping pictures crazily and yelling questions at the same time, trying to talk to the three of them. If it was not for the 10 robots securing an open square in front of the door, they would have been trampled and mobbed by the reporters. "What's the meaning of this, old man?"</p><p>"Ohoho!" someone laughed boisterously and came to Naruto, grabbing his hand and shaking it vigorously. "You told me you're going to visit on such a short notice that I didn't have time to prepare anything special."</p><p>"This is more than enough. I only gave you a heads up so those guys from the Flux Society won't get their panties in a bunch like the last time. You didn't need to get an army of reporters to see us."</p><p>The man in question laughed out loud at his crude words. He was a rather large human-looking being with a big belly but his wide back and shoulders made him look imposing. He was bald, he had a sharp and well-trimmed beard and a red optic device covered one of his eyes. His elegant black and red clothes and the golden medals pinned on his chest spoke of his high status.</p><p>"It's good to see you again, Mr Uzumaki! Come, let's talk over breakfast!"</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Wow, you're a hero in this galaxy?!" Diana said in wonder after their breakfast with the old man that had greeted them. "You've never told me that!"</p><p>"I'm not a hero. I'm a mercenary. M-e-r-c-e-n-a-r-y!" he said half-annoyed. "I got paid handsomely for my services. I didn't do it out of the goodness of my heart."</p><p>"A simple mercenary wouldn't be treated as an honoured guest by one of the richest and most powerful men in the galaxy." Kyuubi said snidely and laughed.</p><p>Naruto sighed in defeat. The old man that had invited them to have breakfast together was none other than Duke Maddox, the leader of Technoid, the most powerful economic and military organisation in the Zaelion Galaxy.</p><p>"Oh come on, stop being so grumpy!" Diana said and took his hand and hers. "Tell me, tell me, how did you get so famous here? What did you do?"</p><p>"One of the generals of Duke Maddox betrayed Technoid and almost started another galactic war four years ago. I was hired to assassinate that man before things went to hell completely. I saved Technoid's image and the duke's prestige."</p><p>Wonder Woman looked at him in doubt. It sounded a little too underwhelming. It was not enough for someone to be hailed as a hero.</p><p>"He forgot to say that he also reversed the Ice Age on a planet that Technoid had almost destroyed several years before. And he did it for free." Kyuubi added.</p><p>"It's not as awesome as he makes it out to be." Naruto said and he made sure to glare at the smirking fox. "Technoid's scientists had been trying to harness a new form of energy. An accident happened and the natural energy cycle of the planet was thrown into chaos which, in turn, triggered an Ice Age. I only had to regulate the cycle of the natural energy of the planet. It took me a few good months but it wasn't all that difficult. I just happen to be a master at manipulating natural energy because I am a Sage. That is all."</p><p>At his words, Diana mirrored Kyuubi's grin.</p><p>"Aww, our cute little mercenary is embarrassed." she kissed him on the cheek and giggled. "You shouldn't be. There's nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, you should be proud!"</p><p>Then, she went ahead and pulled him after her.</p><p>"Come, you promised you'll show me all kinds of interesting things!"</p><p>Naruto gave up on pretending he was annoyed and let himself get dragged by the enthusiastic woman holding his hand. Seeing her innocent smile and her curious eyes as she looked in amazement at their surrounding made him smile too. But, in Wonder Woman's defence, for an Earthling, the space-city of Genesis Stadium was truly amazing, like a city out of a sci-fi movie. Futuristic-looking buildings, holograms for ads, flying cars and suspended gardens. It was beautiful.</p><p>
  <em>'No-one on the streets here would believe me if I told them that she is several thousand years old.'</em>
</p><p>Her happiness and enthusiasm at seeing new things were so pure that she looked like a teenage girl instead of an old and seasoned warrior. She was so cute that Naruto could not bear with it. Discreetly, he pressed on one of the buttons holding his black cloak tied around his neck. The button's outer layer parted to reveal the lens of a tiny camera. She was so precious that he was going to capture every single moment of it.</p><p>⁂</p><p>"My goddess, you look like you want to eat me! Are you ok?" Diana said and chuckled.</p><p>"Huh?!" he said unintelligently but then he quickly added: "I'm perfectly fine. Absolutely fine!"</p><p>The princess went back inside the changing room to try another outfit. Kyuubi, who was sitting on the bench next to Naruto, lazily opened one of his eyes and said:</p><p>"Stinking pervert."</p><p>"Can you blame me?! She's already drop-dead gorgeous but when she came out wearing only that, I thought my heart stopped for a moment."</p><p>"Hng. Whatever." Kyuubi said and closed his eye back, trying to take a nap. He had no reproductive organs or sexual desires like other living beings because he was a chakra beast. He could not exactly understand Naruto's fascination with Diana's appearance.</p><p>Unbeknownst to them, however, Wonder Woman had superhearing too. It was not to the level of a Kryptonian's superhearing but it was definitely more than enough to hear their words perfectly despite being in a different room. A hue of pink appeared in her pale cheeks and she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She cupped her breasts with her hands, lightly fondling herself. Then, her hands trailed down her slim waist and her curvy hips. A confident smile appeared on her face and a mischievous look in her eyes.</p><p>
  <em>'If that's his reaction when I'm wearing ordinary bra and panties... What if I put on something a little more risque?'</em>
</p><p>She let out a soft giggle.</p><p>
  <em>'I can't wait to see his face!'</em>
</p><p>She went to the console in the changing room and interacted with it, scrolling through various clothing items. Seconds after confirming her choices, the clothes she wanted to try on were delivered to her through the opening at the side of the console. It was almost like ordering from a vending machine on Earth.</p><p>The sound of heels clanking on the floor alerted Naruto and he raised his head. But when he looked up, his mouth fell open. The outfit she was wearing was way too provocative. The floral-lace black bra pushed her already large breasts up and made them look even bigger, bow lace panties covered her special place, and the garter belt around her waist could not hide the sculpted abdominal muscles beneath. When his eyes trailed down and saw the way that her thigh-high stockings were digging into her meaty thighs and how her tall high heels flexed her calves... it spelt his demise. He forgot how to breathe. His face became red from the lack of oxygen and a trickle of blood fell from his nose.</p><p>He brought one hand to his nose and the other hand started snapping pictures with his device at an insane speed.</p><p>"Earth's digital porn of you is honestly amazing but this... THIS IS THE REAL THING!" Naruto said but his voice sounded so funny due to him pinching his nose that Wonder Woman burst into laughter. However, she did not forget to put on a show. Turning around, she bent down slowly and gave him the most erotic sight that he had ever seen in his life. The device fell from his hand and he looked at her wide-eyed.</p><p>"Ah!" Wonder Woman said startled when in the next moment, his arms wrapped around her midsection from behind.</p><p>"You're doing it on purpose aren't you. How much do you think I can take before I lose control?" he whispered in her ear.</p><p>A shiver ran down her spine and her heart palpitated at the hunger in his voice. But she was not going to back down then.</p><p>"What makes you think that's not exactly what I want?"</p><p>Luckily, each changing room was separated from the rest of the shop but it was still a public area on which other people could spy. It was not the place for a couple to do intimate things.</p><p>"You're making it really hard for me to take things slow."</p><p>Diana smiled smugly and turned around in his arms. Seeing how self-satisfied she looked, Naruto felt provoked deep inside to wipe that confident smirk off her face. She was trying her hardest to seduce him and he was trying his hardest to resist her advances. It was almost like an unspoken competition. She never missed a chance to tease him.</p><p>But in the end, he held himself back. He broke the hug and put some distance between them. He consoled himself with the thought that it was not only him that wanted her badly. The efforts she was putting into seducing him showed him that she wanted him just as much. It filled him with confidence...and happiness.</p><p>"Mark my words, princess, I will get you back for this, ten times over. I promise. And I never go back on my word."</p><p>She smirked at him confidently and her sensual lingerie further enhanced that feeling.</p><p>"Oh, trust me, I'm counting on that."</p><p>⁂</p><p>A group of people of several different races were all gathered in front of 2 lanes in a bowling alley. There were over 50 people and more were gathering. The reason for that? Two humans, a red-blond man with 3 pairs of darks scars on his face and an athletic woman with black hair tied in a long ponytail, were in the middle of a competition like they had never seen before. The two of them had thrown the bowling ball over forty times until then but every single time, they had a strike, knocking down all 10 pins. Some people even started to film them with their devices. Naruto and Diana were both experts at wielding weapons and thrown projectiles. In their hands, a bowling ball was no different than a dagger. Even after half an hour of intense competition, they could not determine a winner.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Towards the evening, Naruto and Diana were sitting at a table on the terrace outside of a bakeshop, eating cake and drinking soda. Naruto was having a fruit cake; he did not like things that were too sweet. In comparison, the princess had a very sweet tooth. She was eating a chocolate cake with caramel topping.</p><p>Diana leaned on the backrest of the chair and looked at the people walking on the boulevard. It was not the Earth, nor was it Themyscira either. The street was filled with people from all kinds of races, alien to her. Humanoid beings with grey skin, short people with green skin and just one eye, others with blue skin and webbed ears and so on. They all looked strange to her but they lived in peace, not throwing glares at others. Then, there were vehicles and hoverboards flying above the street without emitting any gas or noise and very large screens or holograms displaying ads or relaying news reports. It was like a Sci-Fi utopia.</p><p>"It's beautiful."</p><p>Naruto put a hand on top of hers and lightly squeezed it.</p><p>"There are many other places in the Universe, just as beautiful as this one. I wish I could show them to you one day. I wish we could visit them together."</p><p>Diana raised his hand to her lips and kissed it lightly. He looked at her very surprised by her gesture.</p><p>"Thank you." she said.</p><p>He took her hand and imitated her gesture from before, also pressing his lips against her knuckles.</p><p>"We'll have many more days like this one in the future. Still, the day isn't over. Not yet."</p><p>"You have something else planned on?" she asked with a smile.</p><p>"Apparently, we are in luck. Every four years, this city holds the 'last 16' matches, the final phase of Galactik Football tournament. It's the most popular sport in this galaxy. Basically, everyone is obsessed with it. Duke Maddox invited us to the match this evening. He booked tickets for us, in the VIP booth."</p><p>Looking at the intelligent wristwatch on his hand, he added:</p><p>"Actually, we should get going soon. The stadium is enormous, it can hold tens of thousands of people. It might take a while to get in."</p><p>⁂</p><p>"Wow."</p><p>It was the only thing Diana could say after they entered the stadium. It was the largest building that she had ever been into. The interior was shaped like a bowl and it was thousands of feet in diameter and height. It was humongous. The green pitch floating in midair in its centre did not cover even a tenth of the building's total width.</p><p>"Mr Uzumaki, Mrs Uzumaki. I'm glad you could make it! Welcome!" Duke Maddox greeted them energetically and made both Naruto and Diana smile wryly at his words. They had told him that they were together but they had not given him too many details about their relationship. The man in question assumed that they were married. Coincidentally looking at each other at the same time, Diana quickly stole a kiss from him.</p><p>The old duke chuckled to himself at their behaviour.</p><p>"Ah, young love."</p><p><em>'I'm old enough for you to call me grandpa/grand-grandmother.'</em> Naruto and Diana unknowingly thought at the same time in amusement.</p><p>"Love is nice but Galactik Football is even better! Behold!" he said and opened his arms wide when the first team was brought on the pitch by a flying platform. They were 6 deathly-pale white humanoid beings wearing black costumes. At their centre, there was also a human man, making a rather stark contrast with the rest of his team.</p><p>In comparison, the other team that arrived on the pitch was homogenous, all 7 players having the appearance of muscular humanoid lizards. They were wearing white and blue costumes.</p><p>"I don't watch sports; I've never had time for that. But it looks like the soccer on Earth, just with fewer players." Wonder Woman said.</p><p>"Mhm, most of the rules are similar. But you'll see what is different soon."</p><p>And true to his words, it was just a few seconds after the whistle signalled the start of the match that Wonder Woman turned to look at him wide-eyed.</p><p>"Soccer with metahumans?!"</p><p>The movement and actions of the players on the pitch were way beyond a regular human's capabilities. They were jumping to dozens of feet in the air, sprinting at speeds that were hard to follow with the naked eye, and kicking the ball so hard that it looked like it was shot out of a cannon. Furthermore, the black-costumed players could teleport across the field while the humanoid lizards were extremely powerful and fast and they could use a green-coloured energy to momentarily freeze their opponents.</p><p>He chuckled, satisfied at her reaction.</p><p>"They're using an energy called 'the flux'. The people of this galaxy have developed an ability to use a tiny portion of the natural energy of their native planet. It's a little similar to what I do but there are many differences too."</p><p>At that, Duke Maddox turned in his seat to look at them and chuckled.</p><p>"A few years ago when Mr Uzumaki first came in this galaxy and used his powers, the Flux Society tried to arrest him. They thought he was someone who broke the law when they sensed his power."</p><p>After that, the duke turned back to watching the match with great attention. The black-costumed team was his favourite - the Shadows. He was rooting for them but he was worried because their opponents, the humanoid lizards - the Xenons - were favourite to win the entire tournament, not just that match.</p><p>"It's illegal to use what they call as 'the flux' because about 2 decades ago, a great war caused a lot of death and destruction. Many planets were destroyed in the conflict because of their weapons of mass destruction which used the flux. When the war ended, all the living beings in the galaxy signed a treaty to forbid the use of the flux in anything else besides sports. It was to prevent a similar calamity from ever happening again." Naruto explained to Diana in a quiet voice.</p><p>After that, the two of them stopped talking and paid attention to the match. Even Wonder Woman was absorbed into it despite that she had never watched a soccer game on Earth from the start to finish. Galactik Football was way different. The use of superpowers and the metahuman-like abilities of the players on the field made it look spectacular and exciting.</p><p>In the end, to Duke Maddox' chagrin, his favourite team, the Shadows, lost the game 3 to 5. He was so upset that he had not made much small talk with his guests after the match ended and he left together with his entourage right away. But for Naruto and Diana, it was just as well. They did not have any strong feelings towards the teams that had played on the pitch. They had just enjoyed the spectacle.</p><p>⁂</p><p>Later that night, dressed in only a pair of black shorts and a white t-shirt, Diana was standing on the hotel's balcony, admiring the city below. Duke Maddox had made sure to book them the best suite in one of the most expensive hotels in Genesis Stadium, on his money. It was the most luxurious place that she had ever been into. Naturally, the beauty of the view from the balcony was proportional to the exorbitant price.</p><p>"The view of a city in a technologically advanced society during the night is quite something, isn't it?" she heard Naruto's voice coming from behind. She saw him with two mugs in his hands, and he handed her one too.</p><p>"Hot chocolate. I noticed you love sweet things."</p><p>"Thank you." she smiled and gave him a peck on his cheek.</p><p>Just like her, he was also wearing casual clothes - a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue t-shirt. The two of them leaned on the railing of the balcony and watched the night view of the futuristic space-city together as they sipped from their mugs.</p><p>"We've tried quite a few things today. Did you find something you like?"</p><p>She adopted a thinking posture and started to count the things they had done on her fingers.</p><p>"We went to a restaurant, we went shopping, we played bowling, we went to a bakeshop, we went for a walk, then to a casino and tried the slot machines and we watched a metahuman soccer game too."</p><p>"It's called Galactik Football. Have some respect." he berated her jokingly and she laughed. "So, what did you like the most?"</p><p>"I loved shopping; especially your reaction," she said teasingly.</p><p>He poked her in the ribs with his finger and she jumped with a squeak, almost spilling her hot chocolate.</p><p>"Ara, ara, princess, what a cute squeal you have~"</p><p>But then, he had to suddenly parry her hand as she attempted to do the same. In the next moment, their hands made a blur of strikes and parries, looking just like one of those unrealistic wuxia movies where they fought so fast that their hands could not be seen with the naked eye. Eventually, the ended up in a deadlock, both holding the other's hands. When they looked at each other they suddenly realized how silly they were acting and they burst into laughter.</p><p>Wonder Woman dressed her voice in an attempt to appear serious and continued to talk about their day from where she left off:</p><p>"The food at the restaurant was rather strange. I've never seen those dishes before. But the bakeshop was great."</p><p>"You can never go wrong with cake, eh?" he said.</p><p>"Indeed. Chocolate cake is the secret to happiness." She agreed and they laughed together. Wonder Woman noticed that in spite of how serious she was when she was by herself, whenever she was together with him, they spent most of their time laughing and grinning dumbly at each other. She did not dislike it. Not one bit.</p><p>"I also liked playing bowling, it was fun. But the next time we play it we have to give ourselves some handicaps because we're too good at it. You know, things like knocking down the pins blindfolded."</p><p>"Does Earth have bowling too?"</p><p>"Of course it does! You think we're living in the stone age or what?" she said with a pout. But one simple kiss on the cheek later and her pout vanished.</p><p>"Watching the football game was definitely a new and interesting experience and I loved our walk in the park. I love sitting and chatting with you as we watch the city during the night too... I think I love doing everything together with you..." Diana trailed off and sighed wistfully.</p><p>Her words made Naruto feel as if something was tugging at his stomach and he left his mug on the stone railing of the balcony. He came to her back and he wrapped his arms around her waist, embracing her from behind. He brought his head above her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.</p><p>Wonder Woman melted in his embrace and leaned back against his larger frame, enjoying the way he pampered her. It was a new experience for her. She had never been spoiled by someone like that before. Until then, she had lived her life as a warrior, as an Amazon, as the Wonder Woman. The way that Naruto showered her with attention and affection made her giddy with happiness.</p><p>"This really was the best day of my life." she said and he hugged her a little tighter.</p><p>She turned around in his embrace and her arms came to his shoulders, hugging his neck and bringing his face closer to her. Their eyes closed and their heads tilted as their lips met in a tender kiss. Holding the other tightly in their arms, Naruto and Diana became drunk with passion and kissed each other romantically for a very long time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Naruto and Diana spending more time together was long overdue. I know that quite a few of my readers have been looking forward to it. As for those of you that crave more action, do not fret, the plot will start moving again in the next chapter. I hope you liked reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it haha. Until next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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